Turbo-charging your audit committee

Sue Harvey, Partner at Campbell Tickell identifies what makes a great audit committee.

When I first joined the social housing sector (no, don’t ask), audit committees were places where those with a penchant for the detail of obscure accounting standards were sent, along with tedious board members that needed to be kept well away from the exciting business of development and funding.

Over the intervening years the role of the Audit Committee has risen up the agenda as assorted corporate collapses and scandals have fed into successive iterations of both the Financial Reporting Council’s Corporate Code and our own NHF Code of Governance. Then three years ago the social housing regulator announced its intention to interview chairs of audit committees as part of their new in-depth assessments, and the spotlight was turned full-on.

Through our work reviewing audit committees’ effectiveness and our IDA preparation assignments, Campbell Tickell has been privileged to meet over 50 chairs of audit in recent years. It is clear to us that the top-performing audit committees have raised their game, facilitating the step-up in risk management that today’s challenges demand.

The nerd with a deep understanding of FRS 116 is still adding considerable value. Not least when that clever structured finance deal threatens to come back on balance sheet to haunt you, but other characteristics are also in evidence.

Top class committees

Exceptional audit committees engage in dynamic conversations with their Boards. Those conversations are built on Terms of Reference that are simple, understood by all and used as the basis for regular committee effectiveness reviews.

The dialogue develops with the Board determining a short, prioritised strategic risk register and asking the audit committee to provide assurance that the identified controls are reducing exposures to levels consistent with the Board’s risk appetite. The committee deploys internal audit resource and rotating deep-dives to provide that assurance, and formally reports to the Board following every meeting, highlighting any matters of growing concern.

Great audit committees bring the right skill mix to those conversations, reflecting their responsibilities to give assurance on both internal controls and risk. Members with up-to-date accountancy skills are definitely present, alongside colleagues with risk management experience. Robust independence of thought, appropriate scepticism and curiosity are sort after skills that are in evidence in every discussion.

Top class audit committees never forget. They are forensic about tracking all agreed actions from minuted matters arising, through internal audit recommendations to recommendations stemming from the External Auditor’s annual management letter. They insist on responsibilities and timescales being attached to all actions, and at each meeting they gatekeep decisions to delay, defer and remove completed or redundant actions from the trackers.

Like the best Boards, the best audit committees plan their activities. They have rolling twelve-month work plans which tie in the many strands of work required to give the assurance that the Board needs to sign the financial statements. That work plan also timetables any required policy and procedure reviews and carves out space for the deep dives into the management of key strategic risks. The Chair of a top-performing audit committee uses that plan to distribute the workload throughout the year, to understand the knock-on effects of any suggested deferrals, and to shape their planning meetings with the finance director.

In short, excellent audit committees exhibit a relentless focus on controls and assurance, and in doing so embed risk awareness, accountability and integrity throughout the organisation.

So please go ahead and turbocharge your audit committee. You will free your Board and executive team to focus on the delivery of your strategic objectives, confident that there is a firm bedrock of controls on which to build.

For more information or to discuss this article, contact: sue.harvey@campbelltickell.com

This article also appears in: CT Brief – Issue 37

 

About us

Campbell Tickell is an established multi-disciplinary management and recruitment consultancy, operating across the UK and Ireland, focusing on the housing, social care, local government, sport, leisure, charity and voluntary sectors.

We are a values-based business and firmly place the positioning of our support and challenge on helping organisations to attain change that is well thought through, planned and sustainable. At CT, we want to help organisations create the landscape within which we ourselves would like to exist: fair, inclusive, diverse, engaged and transparent. We build from our values in how we approach all our work as a practice.

Find out more about CT’s Audit, Risk & Assurance services.

Turbo-charging your audit committee

Sue Harvey, Partner at Campbell Tickell, identifies what makes a top-performing audit committee.

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