Frequently Asked Questions
 |
|---|
The following are a selection of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) which are asked about CorGuv and its Services:
How do you avoid bureaucracy in Internal Control & Compliance Systems?
The most important success factor is to regard Internal Control as a people/cultural issue. Then bureaucracy becomes a side issue. Internal Control Implementation implementations become sustainable once the people accountable for operating the controls has a full understanding of why it is necessary and the fact that it provides benefits in terms of job satisfaction, teamwork, efficiency and performance. We take a bottom-up approach to implementations, starting with those whom your organisation relies on to run the controls. We make sure they understand and benefit from the controls. Then we can support this with clear, structured documentation to support the control environment; the documentation then becomes a support mechanism and not an aim in itself. Internal Control is therefore about setting up and environment in which your staff do their job better.
How can Internal Control provide large benefits?
Internal Control is about people doing their jobs more accurately and more effectively. Once this principle is taken on board, some of the more negative seeming aspects of internal control can be seen as positive. For example, the principle of segregation of responsibilities, is often interpreted as ‘not being trusted’, In fact, it is about people helping each other doing their jobs better. The checker or approver thus becomes the helper and better co-operation and teamwork will result.
What does Compliance have to do with Effectiveness?
Better teamwork is the result of well implemented control environments because people in the organisation co-operate with each other get things right (see ‘How can Internal Control provide large benefits?’). Another source of effectiveness is the avoidance of rework. In organisations where inaccurate, or debatable information is regularly circulated, no-one trusts it and everyone double checks the information or spends time questioning it or putting their own interpretation on it. In our experience this is a hugely wasteful activity. Important information is used by as many as 15-20 different people in the organisation; if each of those has to check or rework it, the waste us huge. Robust internal control reduces rework by providing clear accountability for the production of accurate information, this producing confidence and reducing the time spent processing information by factors of 10 or more.
Can CorGuv Provide Outsourced Services?
Yes, we deliver our services in whatever way suits the our clients. Often, this will be consultancy and project management in the implementation phase. Many organisations, however, would prefer not to dedicate resources to control-based activities. Particularly, for Contract Compliance we can provide complete outsourced service based on our expertise in managing and delivering efficient service. We are able to justify this in investment terms; for instance a contract compliance service will usually pay-back many times its cost in cost recovery and improved contract processes.
Why does CorGuv place so much importance on Change Management?
We regard the implementation of Governance Systems as essentially a cultural issue. It is about people understanding the value of accuracy, timeliness, and co-operations. It breaks down inter-departmental barriers and puts the effectiveness of the whole organisation at the top of the agenda. People are at the heart of sustainable governance systems – getting their buy-in is critical, otherwise all the procedures in the world will fall by the wayside. Change Management is therefore an important tool for delivering communication, involvement, and innovation in designing and implementing governance systems.
