Outsourcing and internal controls

M

Msmithstafford

Recently, several states have outsourced some of the services traditionally provided by government employees. In one state, the Department of Health and Human Services (Department) is close to finalizing an agreement to outsource its electronic benefit transfer services to eFunds Inc. Under the contract, eFunds Inc. will be responsible for the electronic distribution of food stamp programs, including transaction processing, reporting, contract management, contract settlement, operations support, help desk services, and project management. For cost reasons, eFunds Inc. will send the work to five offshore service centers it owns in India and can also contract with other companies as necessary. What are the key controls you would recommend to mitigate the risks and What role should the Department’s internal audit function take to assist the Department in dealing with these risk and control issues before and after the contract is finalized? Be specific. Let’s assume it will not be practical to send internal auditors to India.
 

John Broomfield

Leader
Super Moderator
Recently, several states have outsourced some of the services traditionally provided by government employees. In one state, the Department of Health and Human Services (Department) is close to finalizing an agreement to outsource its electronic benefit transfer services to eFunds Inc. Under the contract, eFunds Inc. will be responsible for the electronic distribution of food stamp programs, including transaction processing, reporting, contract management, contract settlement, operations support, help desk services, and project management. For cost reasons, eFunds Inc. will send the work to five offshore service centers it owns in India and can also contract with other companies as necessary. What are the key controls you would recommend to mitigate the risks and What role should the Department’s internal audit function take to assist the Department in dealing with these risk and control issues before and after the contract is finalized? Be specific. Let’s assume it will not be practical to send internal auditors to India.

Msmithstafford,

Have you issued your performance specification and was it used to select your contractor?

Does it oblige your contractor to demonstrate effective control over its processes to fulfill your performance spec?

Has your contractor submitted its control plan so you can sample control points for more or less real-time monitoring?

What about the contractor’s removal of root causes to stop recurrence of any nonconformity?

What records is the contractor required to submit with its applications for payment?

Given these tools you should be well set for monitoring performance.

John
 
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