MPA - statement of accounts

16Annual Governance StatementGovernance issue• Non compliance withregulations and internalpolicies for example inrelation to AmericanExpress and contractregulations• “Post event” and lateprocurement activitiesresulting in the need forcontract extensions orsingle tender actions• continued weaknesses infinancial and businesscontrols in local commandunits2 The Authority’s Local Codeof Corporate Governancerecognises the need for theAuthority to have effectiveHR policies in place toenable staff to be effective intheir role. Whilst theimprovement programmehas recognised this as beinga key objective, progress todate has been limitedActionFinance Services and Territorial Policing are working with InternalAudit to ensure that those business systems that have been identifiedfor improvement are adequately supported in 2008-09. The newlyconfigured Quality Assurance Team in Finance Services will be takingthe lead on this piece of work. The protocol being developedcovering the work of internal audit and the response of the service toaudit and review activity will ensure that audit recommendations aredealt with more promptly.A consultant has been appointed to revise the Authority’s HR policies.The expectation is that these will be drafted and in place within a tighttimescale. Once approved these will allow a consistent approachthroughout the Authority to a wide number of HR policies.Drafting and approval of the policies will be monitored by SMT on aregular basis.3 Governance arrangementsfor partnership workingneed to be reviewed andstrengthened to recognisetheir increasing importance4 Internal Audit hasundertaken a systemsreview of the corporate riskassessment andmanagement process thathas identified a number ofareas where the existingarrangements and approachcould be improved. Themain areas identified are asfollows: -• Although a framework is inplace for the assessmentand management of risk, itis not effective insupporting the integrationand embedding of riskTo improve governance and accountability around partnershiparrangements the Authority will be endorsing a new frameworkdeveloped by the MPS. New improved arrangements will include apartnership strategy and implementation plan, which have recentlybeen approved by the MPS and a toolkit for partnerships which theMPS are currently developing. This toolkit will include guidance tomembers of staff engaged in partnership working.Implementation of these will ensure that best practice is sharedacross the MPS and partnerships are supported by appropriategovernance arrangements and comply with the Authority’s and MPSdecision making processes.Since the original drafting of the report, steps have been taken toaddress a number of the issues and an action plan has been agreedwith the MPS as part of the report. Key actions include: -• reviewing the approach to business risk management toincorporate a process based on integrating all risk activitiesacross the organisation• clearly defining the strategy for implementing risk managementbased on a framework that is integrated within the planning,performance and day to day management of the MPS• setting clear accountabilities across the MPS• embedding risk management into the business planning andperformance management framework• applying a generic risk management cycle based around policingplan objectives and targets• designing and implementing a structure that acknowledges theneed to simplify reports and escalate significant risk through thecommand chain in quick time