A Risk-based Approach to the Audit of Procurement (2015 Edition)

If you are a CIPFA Publications subscriber, have you downloaded the Briefing Note to accompany this title?

Public sector organisations each spend tens – if not hundreds – of millions of pounds each year buying in goods, works and services.

This expenditure ranges from relatively small valued purchases of commodity items to formal contracts for the delivery of major services and capital construction works.

In 2010, CIPFA published A Risk-Based Approach to the Audit of Procurement. It allowed auditors to apply a risk-based approach in a top-down approach – from planning through each of the main key risks identified in procurement and contract auditing to a list of example audit tests – and will aid auditors as they come across procurement-related issues when carrying out the reviews that are necessary to provide assurance on an annual basis.

This revised version has been updated to take into account the various legislative changes that have taken place over the past few years and well as including reference to the Public Sector Internal Audit Standards.

It will help internal auditors, procurement and contract auditors, risk managers and procurement professionals address the subject of contracts during their review of an organisation’s risk management structures and procurement policies by focusing on the following top-level risks:

• contracts not delivered on time, within budget or of acceptable quality
• procurement expenditure failing to fulfil the need
• fraud
• failure to secure value for money
• failure to reflect best practice, adhere to legislation or adequately accommodate equality and diversity
• organisation fails to improve.

This publication will help steer reviews towards examining how risk management structures and systems of internal control ensure that the procurement framework adequately addresses each of the risks involved.

This publication is available in hard copy and as a PDF. Customers and subscribers will need to log in to CIPFA’s website to access the publication.