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Setting up successful contracts

• Posted on February 10, 2017 by Emma Willson

  Cost savings failing to materialise. Customers hit with poor service and financial losses from public services. Contracts disputed and terminated. Contracts can go badly wrong before they even begin if the set up and management aren’t right. Since launching Commercial and contract management: insights and emerging best practice we’ve reported on three contracts that have enjoyed varying degrees of success. As part of our series to share insights into best practice contracting, in this blog-post we explore lessons from these three contracts. more… Setting up successful contracts

  Tagged with: Accountability  Contract insights series  Contract management  Cost reduction  Cross-government  Customer service  Good practice principles  Information management  Performance management  Risk management
  

Do you feel protected as a consumer?

• Posted on January 23, 2017 by Charles Nancarrow

  Scams, unfair trading, e-crime, unsafe goods – these harmed consumers to the tune of £14.8 billion in 2014-15. And that’s just the estimate of the problems tackled by consumer protection bodies; you may not even be aware of times you’ve been a victim of unfair trading. With poor consumer awareness and threats to consumers becoming increasingly complex and wide-ranging we, the Regulation, Consumers and Competition team, recently published a report. We describe here the types of consumer detriment, who’s responsible for protecting consumers, and what all this means for consumers. more… Do you feel protected as a consumer?

  Tagged with: Business operations  Cross-government  Customer service  Cyber security  Fraud and error  International  Local government  Regulation & consumer protection  Risk management
  

Dedicated to strengthening international auditing

• Posted on January 12, 2017 by David Goldsworthy

  
  After 22 years with the NAO, David Goldsworthy, Head of International Relations and Technical Co operation is retiring. David has led a team which has delivered around 100 projects in more than 50 countries over the last 17 years. He looks back over how the world of audit has changed and reveals some of his personal highlights.
   
  more… Dedicated to strengthening international auditing

  Tagged with: Audit  Governance  International  Performance management  Public finances  Reporting  Standards
  

Ensuring Government delivers: an international and 900 year viewpoint

• Posted on December 21, 2016 by Antonia Gracie

  Helping Mozambique address its huge post-war challenges … the launch of a new book on the NAO’s 900 year history … a framework to help the UK government oversee the £734 billion of taxpayers’ money spent each year. The common thread is improved Parliamentary oversight and accountability. This aim is at the heart of the NAO’s role and therefore of the new book by former Assistant Auditor General, David Dewar; it was the subject of my presentation at the Houses of Parliament to a Mozambican delegation; and it has been a key theme of my work in our cross-government team this year. more… Ensuring Government delivers: an international and 900 year viewpoint

  Tagged with: Accountability  Amyas Morse  Audit  Cross-government  Good practice principles  Impacts  International  Performance management  Process management  Public finances
  

Forecasting for ‘Saints’

• Posted on August 17, 2016 by Tom McDonald

  Ever wished to be a Saint – or to visit the world’s oldest land animal: Jonathan, the 184 year-old tortoise? To help the 4,100 ‘Saints’ – the residents of the UK Overseas Territory of St Helena – to become economically and socially sustainable, the UK funded the island’s first airport. But the airport’s opening has been delayed and our investigation highlights the challenges and risks to Realising the benefits of the St Helena Airport Project. This is an unusual and fascinating example of project decision-making. It also highlights common issues about managing high risk projects, potential optimism bias in forecasting, and the challenges of realising project benefits. more… Forecasting for ‘Saints’

  Tagged with: Forecasting  Good practice principles  International  Investigations  Major projects  Overseas aid  Project management
  

A near miss: Managing risk overseas

• Posted on July 28, 2016 by Bob Shambler

  The tragic July events in Dhaka, with a 12-hour siege and death of 20 hostages, brought home to us the risks that accompany travel to almost any part of the world today. The attack on the Holey Artisan Café in an upmarket Dhaka suburb was one of the deadliest in Bangladesh and mostly hit overseas nationals. Horrifying to all, it was terrifying for us. The café was one of the NAO team’s favourite places to eat and a few of its members had been there just a few days before. None of us wants to contemplate the worst, but such occurrences bring home the crucial importance of risk assessment and preparation for crisis management. more… A near miss: Managing risk overseas

  Tagged with: Audit  International  Risk management  Terrorism
  

Think global, act local

• Posted on January 26, 2016 by David Goldsworthy

  Foreign embassy visits. Discussions with parliaments from Malaysia to Morocco. Spending weeks at the United Nations in New York. Every year NAO people spend anything from a few days to many months working overseas. Some conduct audits of international organisations; some evaluate UK spending overseas; some learn about international best practices; and others aid national audit offices and parliaments in developing countries. So how does this help the UK public sector? more… Think global, act local

  Tagged with: Audit  Business operations  Cross-government  Good practice principles  International  Overseas aid
  

Driving public service improvement

• Posted on December 14, 2015 by Amyas Morse

  In my discussions with the organisations we audit, and in their formal feedback to us, they tell us how much they value the knowledge and insight the NAO can share from our work across government. They want to see the good practice, hear the lessons, and discover opportunities to learn from others and reduce duplication. As Head of the NAO, I’m delighted to respond to this request by launching this ‘NAO blog’ and the associated new ‘Topics’ pages on our website. They are among a number of ways we are investing in doing more to share with and help public bodies.

  more… Driving public service improvement

  Tagged with: Amyas Morse  Contract management  Cost reduction  Financial sustainability  Impacts  Managing debt