News

 

KCG News in brief

The shared services Consortium, Kingston City Group (KCG), has been operational for four years, delivering a full range of internal audit, risk management, governance, and other management assurance services to its Members. The KCG Consortium ’s Head Office is based at Kingston University, the Consortium’s host Member institution. KCG Consortium staff are permanently based at various locations including Kingston University, London Metropolitan University, Goldsmiths University of London, the University of Westminster, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and the University of Kent for current service provision requirements, and semi-permanently based at other member locations. The KCG Consortium currently operates with 13 professional staff and one Business Manager, with turnover of approximately £1.2 million per annum.

 

 

The KCG Managing Director, Maria Vetrone, said:

 

“The KCG Consortium is now in its fifth year of operations. The KCG Consortium Board of Management has admitted 11 Member institutions in our first four years of business, which is staggering growth in such a short space of time. We generate fees to the value of £1.2m per annum in total to cover our costs, and we have increased our staff base to 14 in 2009/10. The services that we provide to insitutions that are not Members of the Consortium are increasing.

 

We did not plan to expand the Membership last year in order to take stock of our rapid expansion to date and to review our current audit methodologies and business model. Our new three year KCG Business Plan 2009-2012 is intended to drive significant growth, with the objective of doubling our operations and income within this next planning period.  This additional growth is important to maintain the Consortium's financial stability and continued reliance on economies of scale to spread our cost base in order to remain competitive. On 1 August 2009, we admitted an additional institution to the Membership, the University of Kent, which has allowed us to start to provide services outside of London for the first time. We are now looking to admit a number of additional institutions on 1 August 2010 to meet the growth targets within the KCG Business Plan whilst also retaining our current Member institutions.

 

Our main challenge for the next three years is to achieve the objectives within our Business Plan whilst maintaining our high quality standards, for which we continue to be increasingly regarded in the HE sector. The KCG Consortium Board of Management is keen to ensure a sustainable and managed increase in the Consortium's business for the benefit of all Member institutions, and to allow a base for the development of additional income streams and continued financial investment in the Consortium’s infrastructure.

 

The key to our success in the delivery of our services to date continues to be the quality of our professional staff. Our auditors at all levels take great pride in their work and always strive to deliver high quality professional services for all of our Member institutions at all times. We employ and retain only the highest calibre of staff, all of whom are professionally qualified accountants and internal auditors with significant experience of the HE sector. Our standards are high and we expect a great deal from all of our staff in terms of professionalism and competence, drive, passion for the work of the Consortium and charisma, and ability to work at senior levels with our Member institutions to deliver a high impact and strategic internal audit and management assurance function.

 

As a Consortium, we also maintain strong links with the accountancy and audit profession to keep our audit knowledge and methodologies up to date and fresh. The majority of our staff have trained with, or have experience of, the Big 4 accountancy and audit firms, and maintain contact with their previous employers on a regular basis. This has been immensely beneficial for the Consortium and we strive to continue to maintain these relationships with the industry. We also continue to work closely with our External Collaborative Partner, Tenon Group.

 

I have been extremely grateful for the support, professionalism, and encouragement provided by the KCG Consortium Board of Management over the last four years. The Board takes a strong interest in the business of the Consortium, which has contributed significantly to the Consortium’s continued success.

 

It has been, and continues to be, a real challenge to persuade the HE sector in London and the South East to consider an alternative to outsourced and in-house Internal Audit arrangements, but we are succeeding and still managing to generate a significant amount of interest. I firmly believe that the KCG Consortium offers a very different and more valued Internal Audit service than current arrangements can provide, predominantly because our staff have already gained many years of experience in the audit of the HE environment and know the sector well, and they are all qualified accountants, auditors and management consultants who have trained with the Big 4 accountancy and audit firms. The quality and professionalism of our people, together with their seniority, accumulated knowledge of HE, modern audit skills and techniques, and on-going permanent/semi-permanent presence on site makes us genuinely different to those in-house audit teams and our outsourced competitors. This alternative model has demonstrated some very real benefits to the Consortium's Member institutions.

 

As a result, however, our services are not inexpensive. The vast majority of our cost base is staff, and our staff are all qualified and experienced professionals. This elevates the cost of our service provision, which is shared amongst our Member institutions in proportion to the number of service days delivered. In comparison to our current competitors, we are generally a more expensive alternative predominantly because of our professional staffing arrangements. However, our Member institutions will endorse the principal that our services "add value" where more basic and relatively cheaper internal audit provision cannot.

 

We have very much enjoyed working with our Member institutions over the last four years. The establishment and expansion of the Consortium has been exciting for all those involved. I believe that we have made a very positive contribution to our Member institutions, whether through the initiation of change in organisational and management structures, identification of savings opportunities, or simple strengthening of governance and internal control arrangements. However, we are careful to guard against complacency about our achievements to date or to take on more work than we can manage.

 

We hope to continue to serve our Member institutions in a professional manner and in a way that will always add value to the achievement of their strategic corporate objectives.”

 

Other News in brief

None to report.

 

News from the accountancy and audit industry

We provide links to other accountancy and audit websites for additional news and general information regarding internal audit, risk management and governance arrangements:

 

KPMG

 

 

PricewaterhouseCoopers

 

 

Ernst & Young

 

Deloitte

 

 

RSM Tenon

 

 

Grant Thornton