BDO Ltd

INTERNAL AUDIT AND RISK CONTROL

“If the Nuremberg laws were applied, then every post-war American president would have been hanged”

When events go wrong it costs money, effort and resources. Reputation suffers, morale drops and it takes time to recover… and that’s just in the short term. Look further down the line and you will see that mis-management of risks affects your organisation’s strategic, operational and financial performance.

This in turn affects all stakeholders in your organisation - from your shareholders and board members to your employees and customers. Corporate Governance is about two principal objectives: a business philosophy objective and a practical objective.

The business philosophy objective is summed up in an extract from the Hampel Report (1998): “The single overriding objective shared by all listed companies, whatever their size or type of business, is the preservation and the greatest practicable enhancement over time of their shareholders’ investment. All boards have this responsibility and their policies, structure, composition and governing processes should reflect this”

The business philosophy objective is fourfold:

Increasing shareholder value
Taking into account legitimate interests of stakeholders (employees, suppliers, customers and the environment)
Controlling financial, business and operational risk
Reducing the cost of capital

Noam Chomsky

The practical objective of governance is to ensure that a company puts in place systems and structures which stand the best chance of delivering the business philosophy objective.

With our complete Risk Response Service, you can create real value for your organisation by:

Ensuring compliance with legislation and regulations
Enabling your executives to effectively set the organisation’s priorities
Focusing internally on doing the right things in the right way
Sharing knowledge of business objectives and processes as well as risks
Setting a framework in which to achieve business objectives
Promoting more systematic decision-making leading to better quality decisions
Reducing the overall cost of risk in your organisation

To support the risk management process, we offer our clients a complete range of internal audit and assurance services. Our experienced team works with our clients to independently confirm or reject assumptions and provide feedback on the accuracy of risk assessment and management procedures. Our Risk Response team works with all business units across the firm offering clients a holistic approach to corporate governance and risk management. Risk Response is central to the firm’s strategic plans and we work closely with our clients to be at the forefront of best practice. Our focused approach and flexibility of service allows us to meet the complex needs of our clients.