Module 1 Fundamentals of Contract and Procurement Auditing (2 days)

Presenter

Ken Odgers CPFA, Director, Contractauditline Ltd

Aims

To provide a background understanding and general overview of procurement and contract audit best practice

To provide an awareness of the key issues associated with the management of procurement expenditure and the control of individual contractual agreements.

To highlight the key risks involved and how such risks can be mitigated.

To enhance awareness of the risk of contract fraud.

To identify a risk based approach to the audit of contracts and procurement, and provide the basis for an audit programme.

Learning Outcomes

1 – Introduction and Overview

  • Understand the principles of contract law and what is meant by the term ‘procurement’.
  • Appreciate the scale of procurement activity within a typical organisation and the key risks involved.
  • Aware that it is vital for an organisation to know the scale and nature of its current and future procurement activities in order to inform future decision making (i.e. spend analysis, people involved, types of agreements etc).
  • Appreciate the various delivery mechanisms available for entering into contractual arrangements (e.g. framework agreements, collaborating with others, eProcurement systems, use of buying agencies etc.).
  • Appreciation of the need to carry out risk/value analysis to identify the areas of procurement expenditure that are of strategic importance/ highest risk, in order that details are included in their corporate risk registers.
  • Aware of the tasks associated with each stage of procurement lifecycle and the need to continuously improve over time.

2 – Roles and Responsibilities

  • Aware of central, devolved and outsourced arrangements for procurement.
  • Appreciate the roles and responsibilities of those involved in the procurement function, including Heads of Procurement, service managers, budget holders, specialist advisers etc.
  • Understand the project management structure, including the roles, responsibilities and contractual relationships of those involved (e.g. project manager, project sponsor, contractor, supply chain, architect, cost consultant, service provider, contract officer etc).
  • Understand the position of the auditor (not party to the contract).
  • Aware of the different types of contractual arrangement (e.g. traditional, design and build, partnering, PFI.

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