Management is Responsible for Control Activities

Explanation

Control activities are those protective measures in business and financial processes which help prevent errors and omissions from occurring or which detect when errors or omissions have occurred.

In a well-governed organisation, all members of the management team are aware of the importance of control activities and acknowledge their responsibilities for control activities in their particular area, ensuring the importance of these is communicated to members of their team. Control activity is not just the remit of one particular function within the organisation, e.g. compliance and risk or finance, and it is important for all members of the management team to acknowledge this and place the necessary internal emphasis on its importance.

Recommendation

Management should ideally conduct a review of control activities on a regular basis covering both the design and operation of those activities and ensure that the conclusions and any necessary remedial actions are discussed and followed up at an appropriately senior level of the GP’s governance structure.