Increasing your ability to manage accelerated digital, economic, and cultural change

Article by Sachin Melwani DADA Enterprises Ltd 

The challenges of dealing with COVID-19, the EU Exit, the upcoming economic recession, and the Net Zero Carbon agenda are all placing significant pressure for change and transformation on Public Sector infrastructure projects.

Learn to ask of all actions, to  “why are they doing that? Starting with your own…

“Marcus Aurelius Meditations” – Book 10

Manage, run, and track your Projects more effectively!

By increasing your Internal Audit and Project Governance capabilities to assure your Projects, Space East Cluster projects can benefit by:

• Improving visibility and control
• Streamlining services
• Maximising accountability
• Improving collaboration

To help you shape, plan, and deliver the complex change, companies can use the principles of the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), to make appropriate recommendations to improve Client’s organisational governance processes for:

• Coordinating the activities of, and communicating information among, the board, external and internal auditors.
• Ensuring effective organisational performance management and accountability.
• Making strategic and operational decisions.
• Promoting appropriate ethics and values within the organisation.
• Overseeing risk management and control.
• Communicating risk and control information to appropriate areas of the organisation.

The mission of internal audit is to enhance and protect organisational value by providing risk-based and objective assurance, advice, and insight.

Improving your organisation’s Internal Audit abilities helps to maintain continuity of your programmes and gives consistency to the delivery of your Project Delivery.

The constant emphasis is on the questions…What did you find – what’s the problem?

What’s its significance – why does something need to be done? What do you want the senior manager to do about it? What’s the benefit (for them) if they do?

An internal audit assessment will evaluate the effectiveness of your Project Assurance abilities and contribute to improvements in managing, running, and tracking your Projects.

An assessment will for example determine whether risk management processes are effective by assessing whether:

• Organisational objectives support and align with the company’s mission.
• Significant risks are identified and assessed.
• Appropriate risk responses are selected that align risks with the organisation’s risk appetite.
• Relevant risk information is captured and communicated in a timely manner across the organisation to carry out their responsibilities.

Opportunities that come by improving your governance and risk management to respond to emerging risk events quickly.

Source: Institute of Internal Auditors’ (IIA) Internal Audit Competency Framework.

Copyright © 2022 by The Institute of Internal Auditors, Inc. All rights reserved.

For example, to assess an organisation’s Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) practices, we can review control activities to see if they have been proactively designed to address and mitigate the significant risks.

We can also review whether information critical to identifying risks and meeting business objectives, are being communicated through established channels for internal control and being monitored continuously, with problems being addressed in a timely manner. Similarly, we can also review template job descriptions covering accountability, delegated authority, roles and responsibility, minimum standards, and expectations.

Using the Three Lines Defence model to governance and risk management, we can standardise and design a comprehensive approach to identify and respond to emerging risk events quickly, and effectively.

How can this benefit SPACE EAST Members?

Let’s talk real change. How we can help.

Since September 2021, DADA Enterprises have been awarded a place on ESPO Framework 664 Consultancy Services for Internal Audit Services to UK public sector organisations.

Through the ESPO Supplier Framework, we have been able to supply P3M3 assurance reports, SOC 1 & SOC 2: ISAE 3000 & ISAE 3402 reports, ISO 31000:2018 Risk management assurance, GIAA reports, as well Internal Governance Audits as per Government Functional Standard (GovS 009).

Services we offer under the framework include: