Monthly Archives: January 2014

To the Chinese this is the Year of the Horse.  On the first of April we start the New Financial Year for Public Sector bodies. Will this be the Year of the Procurement Audit? Here is why it is likely! In November 2013, the Audit Commission in its report “Protecting the Public Purse” stated that […]

New Year, New Thresholds, New Rules. What will 2014 bring? No doubt there will be a plethora of foretelling, forecasting and foreclosures. But Who, Where, When and Why will not be foretold by us. The “What” however, is where we can offer some certainty. As of the first of January 2014 a change in EU […]

ICT PROJECTS CAN DAMAGE YOUR HEALTH! This is not a tongue in cheek (no pun intended) poke at ICT projects, it is a serious outline analysis of another IT project that has failed. An authoritative report has been issued by the Victorian Auditor General in Australia, “Clinical ICT systems in the Victorian Public Health Sector”, […]

The Fraudulent Lifestyle Our recent commentary on “who is checking the buyer’s lifestyle” has, it seems touched some raw nerves. One of our respondents has asked “how do you check a lifestyle?” it is a very perceptive question. Of course, there are a whole variety of investigative techniques and we do not believe it is […]

Crown Prosecution Service – Taxi Fraud It was widely reported in last week’s press that two Crown Prosecution Service workers were each jailed for six years, for swindling £1million from the taxpayers in fake taxi receipts. It was reported that the fraud was uncovered after an annual audit, and, that two previous audits had not uncovered the […]

Who Audits the Auditors? We have been reading a “Contract Award Manual”. The content relating to procurement begs the question regarding auditor’s competencies to, on an informed basis, audit the specifics of a deal. There is a section on “Negotiation” It states: The auditors review of purchasing procedures should determine whether: a)      Buyers are required […]

Over the last week or so we have published extracts of clauses from an IT System Provider’s Terms and Conditions ( the Fine Print). We have done this to raise awareness of their implications to your business and to stimulate debate. The extracts in question are replicated below: “Where Hardware is to be supplied XXX shall supply […]