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January was a month of training, at home and abroad. I started with a lively introduction to internal audit for CIPFA, followed by a similar session for civil servants and health auditors in Belfast (yes, I did get all four seasons in 24 hours), and straight from there to Wales to talk about risk appetite. Sadly no trip to Scotland to complete the tour of the four nations. I had an interesting afternoon with a challenging and engaged audit committee in London and then payed a flying trip to Athens to talk fraud and ethics. The sunshine was lovely, the oranges smelt amazing, but it was cold! I spent a day with Diana Melville (CIPFA) providing more audit committee training (and learning so much as I did so) and then back to Athens and on to Heraklion for more fraud and ethics training. I wandered along the harbour in Heraklion as the bloody blue super moon rose above the lighthouse. It was stunning.
Back to the UK for most of February as I've begun the last round of PSIAS reviews to finish them before the deadline of 31 March. To my astonishment, a few councils still haven't booked their reviews yet. I conducted one full review and two validations of self-assessments. I have resolved not to perform validations in future: where the service is well-organised they can work well, but I have had too many where the self-assessment has been full of gaps and the evidence not provided despite making my expectations clear in the bid. The result is a scrappy review with insufficient time to offer the advice and support that these services need: frustrated reviewer and poorly-served client. I also paid a short visit to Brussels just as the Beast from the East arrived. Goodness, it was cold and driving home in -9C was a new experience.
March saw my last PSIAS review for the time being: a good positive one to end on, where I thought I helped and made a difference. I also carried out an evaluation session for an audit committee, helping them to be more confident in their abilities. I spent more time in Brussels and had my first trip to Luxembourg for a long time, in both cases to deliver internal control and risk management training for the EC. I had large groups, but they were engaged and my co-trainers supportive so a good time was had by all.
I had a welcome quiet start to April before a trip to Luxumbourg to talk about communication for auditors. This was great fun and a great challenge too - all those things that I do without thinking about. My delegates really got into the swing of things and their mock interviews showed that many of them were thwarted thespians. I also had a quick trip to Brussels (more internal controls) and Manchester (internal audit training). In between these visits, I worked on the CGAP (IIA qualification for public sector auditors) slides as I have now taken on delivery of that course - this is a serious business as people will be sitting an exam afterwards.
At the start of May I put all that CGAP work into practice delivering the first two days of the four day course. As I haven't sat the exam (I don't think any of the trainers have - what would happen if we failed?) and they weren't doing traditional audit, we had to do quite a bit of interpreting but we all enjoyed the experience. I then picked up my PSIAS mantle again (rather sooner than expected) to go to Macedonia and review government internal auditors against the IIA standards. This was a challenge from many perspectives, not least because everything was in Macedonian, which is written in Cyrillic (I can now read this script!), none of the buildings was obvious and most of the ministries were known by different names so we got hopelessly lost on several occasions. Also it was hot! However, it was a fascinating visit, we met some interesting people and had a lovely weekend in Ohrid as well as enjoying wandering around Skopje, trying to count the statues. Thanks to Eleni Vasili for her support during this trip. I finished the month by spending an interesting day with police audit committee members, helping them to do their job better (although most of them were so experienced, I think I learnt more from them).
June started with back-to-back risk training, helping members to be more rigorous in their challenge of officers. It's lovely to work with repeat clients and see how my "in theory" becomes their "in practice" and, thankfully, that it works! I delivered the second half of the CGAP training (I later heard that one delegate had taken and passed the exam - what a relief) and then hot-footed it to Italy for more training, meeting our colleague in the queue to board the plane. It's great to go back and say hello to old friends as well as spend time around the Italian lakes. We even managed a quick drive around Lake Maggiore - a first for me and it's so pretty. I had a welcome week off and then back to Luxembourg for more training. It's high season now so hotels were hard to find - my courtyard view turned out to be a view of the lift shaft ... Never mind, I wasn't in the room much of the time and it was at least quiet, dark and cool.
A manic month - why did I ever think this was a good idea? I started with three days in Italy, training, developing and delivering an e-learning package, being bitten to pieces by mosquitos and being very brave as I hired a car to get me around. I then headed off to Montenegro for another internal audit review. The challenges were similar to those in Macedonia but different - no Cyrillic and I had a colleague who could translate so we did a more thorough job of checking documents, but this time it was very hot. At least we didn't get lost ... At the weekend we hired a car and had a lovely trip to Kotor, Perast and old Budva: all beautiful old walled towns. We also had a day at the beach, where it was hot enough even for me to swim. Thanks to Ivana Stolic for making this happen. I went straight from Podgorica to Liverpool (where it was almost as hot) for an afternoon with an audit committee (my third visit so I really feel as if I'm getting to know them). I had a blessed 15 hours at home and then an evening session with an audit committee followed by an early morning flight to Geneva. There I worked with a UN organisation to help develop their risk management arrangements. They've worked miracles using Excel but really need to move to a database to give them the ability to sort that they want. I had a slow return trip home, tangled up in the thunderstorms over London and Paris, but it was lovely to be back.
I may have been at home, but no rest for the wicked ... the family descended and I spent a fabulous week at Milton Abbey singing with the amazing Voces 8 (the deposit for next year has already been paid). Church music, coronation music, Chichester Psalms - we certainly made a joyful sound and it was very very noisy too. I went straight back to Geneva to catch up on our thinking so far and then it really was down time. Two weeks at home, writing reports, developing slides and making sure that I'm ready for a busy September before spending the last week back in Geneva: what a lovely city to wander around and what an interesting job too as I discussed our final report with the client and made it work for them as well as us.
I started the month with a quick return to Geneva for the final bit of feedback and then I moved into the usual round of trips to Brussels to deliver training (another iteration of the CGAP course which is always interesting but challenging too), a trip to Italy (lovely in September but those damn mosquitos were still active) and two lots of audit committee training in London, including meeting up with an old friend and colleague for a good catch up over supper.
I ticked another country off my list this month: Malta. I've wanted to visit ever since being unable to go on the Youth Choir trip just before my A levels and it was worth the wait. I spent two days training on internal control but I also managed to explore Valletta and enjoy some autumn heat. I returned home for enough time to unpack and repack and then off to Lisbon for six days of relaxing and exploring and walking. Home again for another thought-provoking TISonline meeting during which we discussed the risks to our privacy of technology - I haven't posted on Facebook since then! I returned to Brussels to finish the CGAP course and then to Luxembourg for risk training followed by auditor communication at the European Court of Auditors. The risk course was a first outing and will need some changes; the communication course is nearly finalised thankfully. I was pleased to be at home on a Sunday evening at the end of the month to join a scratch choir (good tuning and good balance so really quite good) for an afternoon rehearsal and then a sung Evening Prayer. Always a pleasure. And I finished the month by being a delegate at a course on governance: it's strange to be on the other side of the table.
This was one of those months when I began to doubt my sanity as I travelled back and forth and narrowly caught trains and planes. I ended up in all the right places at the right times but ... I started with two days in Seville and then two days in Petten providing internal control and risk management training. I managed an evening stroll in each but no time for any proper sight-seeing alas. Then back to Malta for two nights (more internal control with 45 people - too many to manage effectively), an afternoon in Tewkesbury talking about risk appetite and a mad rush to the last Eurostar for Brussels to deliver internal audit training. I had a day at home and then back to Malta - the timing of the flights meant that I had one and a half days to explore so I had a lovely day in Mdina and Rabat, attended part of a service in the Cathedral and also explored Valletta properly, having lunch in the M&S cafe. I also did a final four days on internal control. I finished the month in Brussels delivering internal control courses and the management supervision course - I hadn't been looking forward to this one, but I had a small and very engaged group and we turned it into a useful therapy session for all.
It was a pleasure to return to Geneva and the UN client (by special request) at the start of December to act as audit manager on a review. I spent a day talking to people to understand the process to be audited and then I had several phone calls over the next week which filled in the gaps. It all makes sense to me but I hope my auditor will be able to work it out too. It's a long time since I did this sort of thing. I'm always reminded of the saying that those that can, do; those that can't teach. I had two days in Brussels being a delegate on the procurement and expenditure lifecycle courses so that I could be validated to deliver them next year. There was a lot of technical information to absorb. And then I finished for the year just nicely in time to prepare for Christmas.
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