Government agencies are not known for innovation, and back in 2000 the Province of British Columbia was no exception. A Hackett benchmarking survey indicated that the staff spent 77% of their time processing invoices–20% more than the most efficient corporations.

"No common processes existed to identify common errors, risks and the root cause of problems related to expenditures and payments," says Shyrl Kennedy, executive director of the province's relatively new Corporate Compliance and Controls Monitoring Branch (3CMB).

No more. This branch of the comptroller general's office has achieved average efficiency savings of $20 million in each of the past three fiscal years. Starting from scratch, with no models or frameworks to use for guidance, the office established a one-of-a-kind risk-based governance program to monitor policy compliance, reduce financial risk and strengthen internal controls.