Gestation period for an idiot? One day
June 30, 2008
It’s only Monday and already we have an article that beggars belief. PwC’s soon to be crowned (tomorrow actually) chief Ian Powell comes out with this stonkingly dopey statement:
Mr Powell said limiting auditor liability was the key to helping newcomers develop and for alleviating the risk of a firm collapsing. The profession has long complained about the unlimited liability it carries and the risk that one case could bring down an entire firm.
The UK now permits auditors to agree liability limits with their clients, but the industry has been waiting for guidance from the Financial Reporting Council, due today, before pressing ahead.
“That’s the biggest protection that we could create for ourselves with our clients, to make sure that they do get their choice [of auditor] going forward,” he said.
These dopes, along with the other Big Four firms can’t even find the right person to join with other Top 50 firms to discuss important issues around IT. And this bastion of the profession expects its clients to simply suck this statement up? Perhaps it should’ve been rephrased to read: “We haven’t a fskin clue what we’re doing, you don’t either so let’s not rock the boat. Yeah - we’re going to be pulling consultants out our ass faster than you can say Sarbanes-Oxley. And that’ll be an extra 15% please.”
Powell was extolling the virtues of being ‘agile. Perhaps he would have been better advised to study the cartoon from Hugh that heads this post? Or the story from which it is taken?
In other news, Spain won the UEFA cup - honest - they did.
Stating the obvious
June 30, 2008
Nikki Ross Martin’s analysis of the Poynter Report is well worth reading. Key take-aways:
- Information security, at the time of the incident, simply wasn’t a management priority;
- Even had it been a priority, HMRC’s organisational design and the governance and accountabilities underpinning it would have made it extremely difficult for it to be felt as such;
- Even with a more suitable organisational structure, the fragmentation and complexity that has accompanied the changes that HMRC has had to absorb makes information security difficult to control;
- HMRC’s information security policies were inadequate and those that they had were unduly complex and not adequately translated into guidance or training for the junior officials who needed them;
- HMRC continues to operate processes that hark back to a paper-based, rather than a digital, world; and
- Morale is low in HMRC and management needs to continue to focus on engaging with staff as the department embarks on a period of further change.
In her editorial email that arrived this morning, Nikki adds:
He manages not to point out that the underlying problem for HMRC lies in totally ineffective management. Not so much a case of weak internal controls, more like a case of no internal controls and no proper chain of command when it comes to data security. Scary stuff and apparently, a problem completely overlooked in implementing the Carter proposals.
One can speculate why Poynter does not want to spell out the obvious too clearly. Could it be the odd conflict of interest? Given the links that the big accountancy firms have to HMRC (all that consultancy work and seconding each other in and out) it would be unsurprising not to happen.
I’d go further. As is becoming increasingly obvious, the Big Four’s lack of detailed IT knowledge is starting to show. They are heavily involved in IT specification, implementation and management for government and large organizations. So as with many such a report, when there’s a finger pointing elsewhere, there are always three pointing back.
The temptation will be for HMRC to take a series of kneejerk actions instead of understanding the root and branch problems that exist. But let’s be clear, HMRC is not alone. It is almost becoming routine to find that one or other large institution has managed to ‘lose’ data.
My del.icio.us bookmarks for June 26th through June 30th
June 30, 2008
These are my del.icio.us bookmarks for June 26th through June 30th:
- blip.tv (beta) -
- SEOmoz | The Evil Side of Google? Exploring Google’s User Data Collection - Want to know what Google knows about you? Here's a comprehensive list of 'stuff' it picks up from services you use.
- Prem Sikka: Britain is the sleaze capital of the western world | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk - Awesome analysis of corrupton, pointing the finger at the UK as poor at tackling the problem
- SpendMatters: Workday Rising — Free Your Mind - Nice write up on Workday's design philosophy from Jason - a solid Irregular
- The Obvious?: Book bollocks - Not sure I wholly agree with Euan on this one. Read Carr's polemic for yourself and decide. The best bit is at the end.
- Scobleizer — Tech geek blogger » Blog Archive How is technology changing the world of Washington D.C.? « - Can we say the same in the UK? Best we can come up with seem to be more and more dat aloss stories. Doh!
- Time the taxman got a grip - Accountancy Age - Like many experiences in the past, HMRC did not allow enough time for testing of its systems both internally (with its outsourced partner) and with third-party software developers. It did not effectively communicate the changes to the forms with tax agent
- Online accounts review: Xero - 25 Jun 2008 - I had said that ICAEW accreditation was of limited value. Now we know why.
- PR Fail - a collection of bad things. - Can you imagine this extended to lawyers, accountants…the list goes on.
- Building Web Communities That Add Value - David's slideshow is an excellent example of surfacing broad issues you should be thinking about. It uses ION as the basis for explaining what works and how.
- Twitter Gets Help from Bezos - My guess is the investment was needed to get the service into a fit for use condition. That is not going to be cheap.
- WebCPA - New IFRS XBRL Taxonomy Released - Definitely one to get your teeth into but wondering how much the Big 4 will be salivating over consulting opportunities.
- The Website Is Down - Possibly one of the funniest videos you're ever likely to see - but definitely NOT work safe. Enjoy at your peril.
- YouTube - Why Your Stories Matter by Cris - Better than when I saw it at night last month. Better story as well.
Cranky voice, scruffy face and a bitch
June 30, 2008
Last Saturday afternoon I had a wonderful conversation with Francine McKenna. Despite our backwards and forwardsing on blog posts, it was the first time we’d spoken. As seems to be the case these days, Francine is exactly as I imagined. Don’t ask me to describe but it was all good and left me with plnety to think about.
A big part of our conversation centred on the dreadful state of IT understanding among the Big 4 and the possible consequences when something goes wrong. Note - not if.
The part that really fascinated me was Francine’s assertion that a significant number of new entrants to the profession - Gen Y’ers if you will - are a ‘different’ breed. She believes there are those who are not only much more tech savvy than their predecessors but more likely to raise ‘Why are we doing this?’ type questions. I yo-yo on this because of what I see as ‘greasy pole’ syndrome. In other words, the ambitious ones are going to toe the institutional line because that’s what gets them on in their careers. Francine came back saying that some are viewing the profession with a more jaundiced eye and may bail out rather than sticking the course. Or come out to return later.
There will of course always be those disruptors who stick the course anyway and then go on to do great things. Francine thinks there are likely to be more of those in Gen Y than in the past. I don’t know though I live in hope.
On one thing we are 100% agreed. There is an opportunity right now for the profession to make a genuine difference across multiple dimensions. The whole governance, risk and compliance (GRC) area is one such where solid IT knowledge could be used in a positive way to help business do better. And I’m not thinking about jumping on the Green IT bandwagon but about using GRC as a springboard for doing business better and more profitably. There are others.
I sense that Francine and I will be having more conversations.
In the meantime, where does this post title fit in? Check here and here.
