The requirement for public companies to demonstrate their internal controls over financial reporting (as laid out in Sarbanes-Oxley, Canada’s National Instrument 52-109, Japan’s “JSOX”, India’s Clause 49 and others) is increasing expanded to government entities.

In the United States the Office of Management & Budget (OMB) A-123 regulation and the Canadian Treasury Board’s  ICFR requirements have led government entities to seek out cost effective solutions that enable them to document their financial controls efficiently.

Up to now many Government entities have been relying on non-centralized approaches incorporating spreadsheets and other documents. This slows down the generation of consolidated reporting and provides no real audit trail of changes to the information. It also slows down—and thus increases the costs of—any external auditor reviews. They have also suffered from a manual and non-standardized approach to responding to issues and tracking action plans

Many entities have therefore adopted GRC Suite from BPS Resolver as their internal controls repository and reporting system, packaged with a customized database of appropriate risks and controls, which can be expanded to included content from COSO, COBIT or any other specific processes, risks and controls. Reporting, which includes dashboards for executive level managements and customized reporting for management, has been customized to meet the various needs of executives and boards. Issues and deficiencies can be raised by any user authorized to do so and automated workflow ensures action plans are executed and all program participants follow prescribed approaches and schedules.

For more information on how BPS Resolver supports the ICFR needs of government entities please contact us.