Performance audit, as practised by national audit offices, is a relatively recent and rapidly developing set of activities. Auditors claim to have moved beyond issues of compliance and regularity and to be able directly to investigate the efficiency and effectiveness of public programmes,projects, and institutions. These are developments with considerable implications for both democratic accountablility and managerial efficiency. Until now they have received little independent scrutiny, but in this book an international team of researchers analyses the growth of performance audit in five countries: France,Finland, The Netherlands, Sweden, and the UK. It is argued that audit offices face a series of strategic choices, and that in different countries they have thus far chosen somewhat different trajectories.
Companies in highly regulated industries face unique challenges in optimizing business performance and profitability while maintaining strong governance and strict regulatory adherence. In High Performance Operations, leading business performance consultant Hillel Glazer shows how to achieve these goals through the successful integration of lean- and systems thinking. Writing for a broad audience of operations and governance executives, Glazer shows how to systematically incorporate compliance into planning for overall performance, value, and profitability, rather than viewing compliance practices as an end in itself. Glazer helps you discover and implement the pre-conditions for success! uncover the secret sauce that helps you scale their successes, eliminate single points of failure, and get more of what went right! define what value and operational excellence look like in your company, and identify the costs you'll have to pay to achieve them! create solutions, establish proof-of-performance, justify investments, measure performance, and implement continuous improvement! translate solutions into working policies, patterns, processes, and procedures.Using this book's proven techniques, you can build your company into the best place to work, the best value to your customers and the best source of return to your stakeholders. An indispensable resource for all operations managers, compliance teams, process control managers, and other decision-makers in regulated industries such as healthcare, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, IT, finance, and environmental services.
Business sustainability has advanced from greenwashing and branding to being a business imperative. Stakeholders, including shareholders, demand, regulators require, and companies now need to report their sustainability performance. No longer is this a choice for businesses. A decade ago, fewer than 50 companies released sustainability reports, and now more 8,000 global public companies disclose sustainability performance information on some or all five economic, governance, social, ethical, and environmental (EGSEE) dimensions of sustainability performance, and this trend is expected to continue. Indeed, more than 6,000 European public companies would be required to disclose their environmental, social, governance and diversity information for their 2017 reporting year. However, the proper determination of sustainability performance, accurate and reliable reporting and independent assurance of sustainability information remain major challenges for organizations of all types and sizes. Through reading this book, you will: Identify sustainability strategies to create innovation in new products, services, energy-efficiency, environmental facilities and green initiatives. Understand the role and responsibilities of all participants in the corporate reporting process, including directors, officers, internal auditors, external auditors, legal counsel, and investors. See ways to improve public trust, investor confidence, business reputation, employee satisfaction, corporate culture, social responsibility and environmental performance. Learn all five economic, governance, social, ethical and environmental (EGSEE) dimensions of sustainability performance separately and their integrated and interactive effects on achieving the goal of creating sustainable value for all stakeholders, including shareholders. Learn how to adopt best practices in sustainability development and performance, and deliver effective integrated sustainability reporting and assurance.
Audits provide essential accountability and transparency over government programs. Given the current challenges facing governments and their programs, the oversight provided through auditing is more critical than ever. Government auditing provides the objective analysis and information needed to make the decisions necessary to help create a better future. The professional standards presented in this 2018 revision of Government Auditing Standards (known as the Yellow Book) provide a framework for performing high-quality audit work with competence, integrity, objectivity, and independence to provide accountability and to help improve government operations and services. These standards, commonly referred to as generally accepted government auditing standards (GAGAS), provide the foundation for government auditors to lead by example in the areas of independence, transparency, accountability, and quality through the audit process. This revision contains major changes from, and supersedes, the 2011 revision.
This volume, developed by the Observatory together with OECD, provides an overall conceptual framework for understanding and applying strategies aimed at improving quality of care. Crucially, it summarizes available evidence on different quality strategies and provides recommendations for their implementation. This book is intended to help policy-makers to understand concepts of quality and to support them to evaluate single strategies and combinations of strategies.
Policymakers and program managers are continually seeking ways to improve accountability in achieving an entity's mission. A key factor in improving accountability in achieving an entity's mission is to implement an effective internal control system. An effective internal control system helps an entity adapt to shifting environments, evolving demands, changing risks, and new priorities. As programs change and entities strive to improve operational processes and implement new technology, management continually evaluates its internal control system so that it is effective and updated when necessary. Section 3512 (c) and (d) of Title 31 of the United States Code (commonly known as the Federal Managers' Financial Integrity Act (FMFIA)) requires the Comptroller General to issue standards for internal control in the federal government.
Compliance has become key to our contemporary markets, societies, and modes of governance across a variety of public and private domains. While this has stimulated a rich body of empirical and practical expertise on compliance, thus far, there has been no comprehensive understanding of what compliance is or how it influences various fields and sectors. The academic knowledge of compliance has remained siloed along different disciplinary domains, regulatory and legal spheres, and mechanisms and interventions. This handbook bridges these divides to provide the first one-stop overview of what compliance is, how we can best study it, and the core mechanisms that shape it. Written by leading experts, chapters offer perspectives from across law, regulatory studies, management science, criminology, economics, sociology, and psychology. This volume is the definitive and comprehensive account of compliance.
An expert's insider secrets to how successful CEOs and directors shape, lead, and oversee their organizations to achieve corporate goals Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance shows senior executives and board members how to ensure that their companies incorporate the necessary processes, organization, and technology to accomplish strategic goals. Examining how and why some major companies failed while others continue to grow and prosper, author and internationally recognized expert Richard Steinberg reveals how to cultivate a culture, leadership process and infrastructure toward achieving business objectives and related growth, profit, and return goals. Explains critical factors that make compliance and ethics programs and risk management processes really work Explores the board's role in overseeing corporate strategy, risk management, CEO compensation, succession planning, crisis planning, performance measures, board composition, and shareholder communications Highlights for CEOs, senior management teams, and board members the pitfalls to avoid and what must go right for success Outlines the future of corporate governance and what's needed for continued effectiveness Written by well-known corporate governance and risk management expert Richard Steinberg Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance lays a sound foundation and provides critical insights for understanding the role of governance, risk management, and compliance and its successful implementation in today's business environment.