Most governance failures that end up in an audit report or a parliamentary committee are visible years earlier in the approval trail. We test yours now: whether the approvals your law, constitution and board require were actually obtained, whether the minutes prove it, and whether money is flowing where it is allowed to.
A fixed-scope review of how decisions are approved and recorded across your organisation and its subsidiaries. We sample significant decisions, investments and payments, trace each one to the approval it needed, and report where the trail is missing, late or given by the wrong body.
Statutory bodies and public universities often need approvals that sit outside the board. Under the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971, for example, a university needs the Minister of Finance's approval to take equity stakes, form joint ventures, set up companies, borrow and invest. Officers of statutory bodies can be personally surcharged for payments not duly approved. Companies and GLCs face the same scrutiny from auditors, shareholders and enforcement agencies. An approval that was never obtained cannot be fixed after the Auditor-General has found it, but it can be fixed before.
Scoped to your legal structure. A statutory body with three subsidiaries and a listed group with thirty need different depth, and we size the sample accordingly.
A map of every approval your enabling Act, constitution, articles and shareholder arrangements reserve to a minister, the Ministry of Finance, the board or shareholders, so the review tests against the right rules.
A risk-based sample of investments, capital projects, borrowings, company formations, large contracts and payments, each traced to the approval it required and the date it was obtained.
Whether minutes record the decision, the papers considered, conflicts declared and the reasoning, well enough to show an auditor or investigator what was decided and why.
Whether management acted within delegated authority, whether delegations are current and documented, and where they have been bypassed.
Capital injections, advances, guarantees, management fees and dividends between the parent and its companies, tested for approval, documentation and commercial basis.
Findings ranked by legal and reputational exposure, with actions to regularise past decisions where possible and fix the process going forward.
A missing approval found internally is a remediation item. The same gap found by the Auditor-General is a public finding.
Clear evidence that decisions were properly approved protects the individuals who made them, including against surcharge and disciplinary action.
Directors see where the organisation stands on approvals and governance records, not just an assurance that policies exist.
Group governance gaps usually sit in the companies furthest from the board. The review brings them into the same picture.
Findings lead directly into limits of authority design, board processes and training, so the same gap does not reopen.
We do not sell systems or take on the transactions we review, so the findings are not shaped by a follow-on sale.
Agreeing entities, period, decision types and sample size, and collecting the enabling Act, constitution, delegations and minutes.
Building the map of approvals each type of decision required and who could give them.
Tracing sampled decisions and payments through papers, minutes, approvals and payment records, with interviews where the trail is unclear.
Walking management through draft findings so facts are right before anything reaches the board.
A board-level report with findings ranked by exposure and a remediation plan with owners and dates.
An optional re-test after remediation to confirm the gaps are closed.
Every reserved approval by decision type, source of the requirement and approving body.
Each sampled decision with the approval required, the approval obtained and the evidence.
Assessment of minute quality and delegation currency, with examples.
Parent and subsidiary transactions tested for approval and basis.
Findings ranked by exposure, with a plain summary for directors.
Actions, owners, dates and the steps to regularise past decisions where possible.
