Energy
Our team are experienced in working across the private sector, both as in-house and out-sourced providers of internal audit.
Unlike external audit there is often no requirement for private sector organisations to establish a professional internal audit function, it is not mandated or required by company law. However, those who look beyond minimum expectations, strive towards good practice and recognise the importance of strong internal control environments in contributing to company success often invest in internal audit.
Our team offer services to production and distribution companies; including oil and gas, electricity, renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, hydro, and biomass), and nuclear. They can also provide services to energy management, energy efficiency solutions, consulting and trading companies.
The UK has seen a number of corporate failures over the past few years, particularly in relation to the consumer facing energy distribution companies who have been unable to pass on soaring wholesale prices to customers because of price gaps designed to protect consumers, this has given rise to Ofgem urging that suppliers should be required to have internal audit functions to limit the risk of further of collapses which have cost UK households billions of pounds.
This call has been supported by the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors (CIIA), writing to the regulator the CIIA commented that companies providing energy “are systemically important and need a robust audit and governance framework, in much the same way that we have for major financial providers”; corporate failures in this sector have wide ranging impact and have left households picking up the tab amounting to additional hundreds of pounds for every household. The CIIA commented that “As far as we can tell, none of the energy suppliers that have recently gone into administration had any internal audit capability,”.
Even when internal audit is present in the private sectors, it often suffers from under investment. Internal auditors are hired by companies to help organisation’s identify and manage business risks, ranging from financial, to operational and cyber security; but often seen as an overhead rather than an investment which if delivered well and in accordance with good practice can pay dividends and add real value to operations.
Give our team a call today to discuss how we can strengthen your in-house team resources through co-sourcing or provide fully outsourced internal audit support.