Stand up and be Counted

Ged Murphy

Or should that be stand up and count what matters!!!

In a world of de-layering, increased risk taking and pressure to cut corners, Ged will provide an insight into some recent high profile

governance failures, emphasising the need for professional standards, maintaining accountability, due diligence frameworks and robust internal audit. The “do nothing” option could be the

road to disaster…..

Crikey….not a big ask then!!

• From whose perspective……• Massive stakeholder map of interest in audit -

public, professionals, politicians, media, commerce etc etc

• Personal view as a finance professional – nearly 30 years……

• Not an audit expert… but do have a strategic role …….

What I will cover……

• Current context • Public sector examples• The Future• Questions

Questions?

For you….

Thoughts

• Crisis of confidence in public service institutions – press, parliament, NHS most recently, banks, police (plebgate?), meat………

• That’s even with all our resources, controls and standards of the past

• Trust – once lost difficult to regain

SECTION 3Definition of Internal Auditing

Internal auditing is an independent, objective assurance and consulting activity designed to add value and improve an organisation’s operations. It helps an organisation accomplish its objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of risk management, control and governance processes.

Public Sector Internal Audit Standards

Fire Control

• My personal experience of a major scheme and governance failure at every level…………..

• Highly forseeable• Predicted the failure• Tried to get civil servants and ministers to

listen • Ended up in the Public Accounts Committee• Failed miserably

The FiRe Control Challenges (2008)

• Managing expectations• Being heard • Being influential• Maintaining relationships• Building and maintaining trust

"It is now clear that some staff did express concern about the standard of care being provided to patients. The tragedy was that they were ignored and worse still others were discouraged from speaking out." The Inquiry concluded that a number of the deficiencies at the Trust had existed for a long time. Whilst the executive and non-executive Board members recognised the problems, the action taken by the board was inadequate and lacked an appropriate sense of urgency. The Trust's board was found to be disconnected from what was actually happening in the hospital and chose to rely on apparently favourable performance reports by outside bodies such as the Healthcare Commission, rather than effective internal assessment and feedback from staff and patients. The Trust failed to listen to patients' concerns, the Board did not review the substance of complaints and incident reports were not given the necessary attention.

Robert Francis QC

Robert Francis QC added: "It is now clear that some staff did express concern about the standard of care being provided to patients. The tragedy was that they were ignored and worse still others were discouraged from speaking out."

The Inquiry concluded that a number of the deficiencies at the Trust had existed for a long time. Whilst the executive and non-executive Board members recognised the problems, the action taken by the board was inadequate and lacked an appropriate sense of urgency.

The Trust's board was found to be disconnected from what was actually happening in the hospital and chose to rely on apparently favourable performance reports by outside bodies such as the Healthcare Commission, rather than effective internal assessment and feedback from staff and patients. The Trust failed to listen to patients' concerns, the Board did not review the substance of complaints and incident reports were not given the necessary attention.

Problems at the Trust were exacerbated at the end of 2006/07 when it was required to make a £10 million saving. The Board decided this saving could only be achieved through cutting staffing levels, which were already insufficient. The evidence shows that the Board's focus on financial savings was a factor leading it to reconfigure its wards in an essentially experimental and untested scheme, whilst continuing to ignore the concerns of staff.

Yet again, Eric Pickles has demonstrated his scorn for that most high profile of spending cuts victims, the soon-to be abolished Audit Commission. In his speech to the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy today the communities secretary called it a "creature of Whitehall" which had "lost sight of its own mantra – 'protecting the public purse'". Pickles continued:

"How can we have confidence in a spending watchdog which has held its Board meetings in an Oyster Bar to discuss 'improving corporate governance', and then lost the receipt for the £800 bill?

Or which was spending £1,500 a year on flowers for the reception of its Millbank office – which only stopped in September 2010. Didn't they sense the urgency of the Emergency Budget?

Spending watchdogs and district auditors are in no position to lecture councils on financial probity - if they themselves don't care about delivering value for money and protecting taxpayers' cash."

The Future!

Some ideas…..

• Use transparency to cut waste • Tackle duplicate payments • Tackle fraud• Claw back money from benefit

cheats • Stop the scope for procurement

fraud

• Cut printing costs • End lifestyle and equality

questionnaires • ban mineral water at council

meetings • Stop translating documents into

foreign languages

Where does this leave you?

Thank you