Insight + Hindsight = Foresight*

The insights SAS brings to your organisation arise from the following expertise and experience, together with my ability to innovate and identify new directions and improvements.

Qualifications:  I hold a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from the University of Melbourne and am a Chartered Accountant and management consultant.  I have been working in professional accounting, auditing and consulting roles for almost fifty years – and still going strong!

Governance Roles:  I was an independent member of the Audit Committee of the Department of Transport, Planning and Local Infrastructure until 31 December 2014, having chaired the former Department of Planning and Community Development’s Audit Committee for ten years.  I was a board member of the Australian Centre for the Moving Image and chaired its Audit Committee for more than eight years from its establishment in 2002.  I spent six years as a member of the Department of Premier and Cabinet’s Audit and Risk Management Committee.  Before the industry restructure, I chaired the Audit Committees of Fawkner Crematorium and Memorial Park and the Keilor Cemetery Trusts.  From 1987-90, I represented the Treasurer of Victoria as a Commissioner of the Dandenong Valley Authority.  Since August 2011, I have been an independent member of the Audit Committee of the Abbotsford Convent Foundation Ltd.

Now . . . I can bring the benefits of all of that experience to your organisation.

Experience:   Most recently, for the last ten years, I have been advising my clients on all of the matters described on this site in my role as Principal, Strategic Assurance Services.

I began my career in auditing with Edwin V Nixon & Partners (later Arthur Young & Company, then Ernst & Young and now EY).  In that first job, for about 11 years, I provided statutory audit services to a wide range of clients of all sizes – The Broken Hill Proprietary Co. Ltd (‘BHP’) (including head office and the oil and gas and wire manufacturing subsidiaries), Mobil Oil Australia Ltd, Australian Industry Development Corporation (‘AIDC’) in Canberra (industry support funding), Wormald International Pty Ltd (diversified security and fire protection), Charles Moore (Aust) Ltd (retail), Farmers & Graziers’ Co-operative Ltd, Flexdrive Industries Ltd (automotive), Jaques Ltd (manufacturing engineers), Jacksons Corio Meat Packing Pty Ltd, various Cyclone Co. of Australasia Ltd subsidiaries, Melbourne Steels Pty Ltd, Chris Bakeries Pty Ltd, Fluor (Aust.) Pty Ltd (engineering and resources construction projects), Lempriere Ballarat Metal Pty Ltd (recyclers), Mercantile Mutual Insurance Co. Ltd (insurance), Sedgwick Forbes Leslie Pty Ltd and Bland Payne (Aust.) Pty Ltd (insurance broking), Stawell Timber Industries Pty Ltd and Trustees Executors and Agency Co. Ltd.  That experience was invaluable throughout my later career due to its diversity across all levels of complexity in industry and commerce.

From the role of Audit Manager, I  moved to spend three years as Arthur Young & Company’s National Technical Manager in Australia – a training and research role which took me all over Australia and to the US in the context of course development and teaching.  It also involved accounting and auditing policy research and development.  I was very fortunate, during that period, to deal in some way at least with all of the senior partners in Australia and a small number of key senior partners in New York Office as well.

At the end of 1982, I was offered the newly created position of Special Adviser (Accounting) to the Victorian Commissioner for Corporate Affairs.  That role involved advising the Commissioner on companies’ accounting policies, standards, financial reporting and on the registration of auditors as well as having a direct role in providing input to legislation for financial reporting and accountability by companies in Australia.   (Those roles are now performed by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.)  Also in  that period, I served as a member of the Law Department’s Trustee Companies’ Working Party following the collapse of the Trustees Executors and Agency Co. Ltd.

In 1985, I moved to the position of Director, Accounting Policy in the [Victorian] Department of Management and Budget (‘DMB’) (now the Department of Treasury and Finance).  In that role, I supported the extension of the coverage of the Annual Reporting Act 1983 to include about 300 of Victoria’s largest government departments and agencies.  Those public bodies began reporting annually to Parliament on a comprehensive accrual basis for the first time.  Also in that period, I advised other parts of DMB and the Treasurer on the application of current cost accounting to Victoria’s five largest government business enterprises (GBEs) State Electricity Commission of Victoria (‘SECV’), Gas & Fuel Corporation of Victoria (‘GFC’), Melbourne & Metropolitan Board of Works (‘MMBW’), Port of Melbourne Authority (‘PMA’) and the Grain Elevators Board (‘GEB’).  This work supported legislative requirements and the Treasurer’s Directions for these GBEs to set their prices so as to earn a long run rate of return on their assets-in-service (4% real) and a 5% return on their equity.  They were also required to pay dividends (negotiated annually) to the Consolidated Fund as a return to the community on its investment in these GBEs.  In addition, I led the preparation of a number of accounting and related policy documents that were firsts for the public sector in Victoria – and for Australia in most cases.  They included policies and procedures on Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Non-Current Physical Assets, Duties and Responsibilities of Members of Public Sector Boards and Financial Instruments.  In 1985-90, I also led the research and consultation process which later underpinned the enactment of the Financial Management Act 1994 and the Audit Act 1994.

In 1990, I decided that it was time to return to public practice with the main purpose of supporting (potential) Victorian Public Sector clients to implement the ‘new’ annual reporting requirements, especially in the health, education and utilities sectors.  Penny Hutchinson and I were appointed as directors of BDO Consulting Pty Ltd in July 1990 and we spent the next ten years growing the management consulting and internal auditing practice from almost nothing to fees sufficient to support a partner, two managers and a small staff.  Our client base was heavily skewed towards health care – most Victorian public hospitals and nursing homes as well as the Department of Human Services – but with significant involvement in projects with the Department of Treasury and Finance, Department of Natural Resources and Environment (now DELWP), water sector agencies all over Victoria and the Ministry of Transport.  In this period I also worked on projects to deliver valuations of small businesses, accounting policy and procedure manuals and internal audit projects in a wide range of areas from hospital emergency waiting times and clinical governance, to water quality, IT post-implementation evaluation, food and cleaning service improvements, and to efficiency of engineering and maintenance – and many other points in between.  I also led a number of due diligence engagements in the context of local government and health care agency amalgamations.  A more complete list of projects appears below.

In January 2006, I was able to visit and discuss market strategy and business development with BDO’s Global Office Managing Partner in Brussels, Belgium.  This was only one of many very special experiences with BDO.  I continued as a director and senior manager at BDO until June 2006 when I resigned to start my practice as Principal of Strategic Assurance Services – largely providing the same services we developed at BDO but for a new group of public sector and other clients.   In August 2006, BDO’s Melbourne Office (BDO Nelson Parkhill) merged with Deloitte, becoming Deloitte Growth Solutions.

Key Projects:  I have played a key role on all of the following projects –

Internal Audit Appointments

• Internal audit of Victoria’s energy safety regulator;
• Internal audit of the Docklands [Film] Studios Melbourne;
• A wide range of water sector internal audit projects, including water quality, customer relationship management, financial systems, post-capex project evaluation and wastewater and recycled water benchmarking;
• Internal audit of a major energy retailer’s arrangements with its buying club members for claiming and remitting rebates from suppliers based on turnover;
• Audit of the Property Management function of a major regional municipality;

Due Diligence and Litigation Support

• Due diligence studies of health services being amalgamated in Melbourne and country areas;
• Due diligence studies of the ownership and viability of tenderers for large supply contracts with a metropolitan teaching hospital;
• Review of the assets and obligations of the Gippsland and East Gippsland Aboriginal Co-Operative Ltd;
• Due diligence studies of mental health care agencies as the basis for ‘mainstreaming’ their services into nearby public hospitals;
• Due diligence studies of local governments as part of the council amalgamation process – Indigo, Baw Baw and Hindmarsh Shires;
• Calculating and reporting amounts to be claimed in court from debtors whose hire purchase contracts had been cancelled due to unpaid instalments;
• Financial review of losses incurred in the context of commercial contract disputes;
• Valuation of a software business for family law property settlement purposes; of a mortgage lender and of a debt collection company;

Line Management Roles for Clients

• Management of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment’s Water Sector Services Branch, including restructuring the branch’s organisation structure, dam safety, water quality, new sewerage schemes for small Victorian towns, drought responses, customers’ issues and interfaces with water wholesalers and retailers;
• Managing fixed term deposits and an at-call investment portfolio;
• Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Central Gippsland Aboriginal Health and Housing Co-Operative Ltd including managing reform initiatives; and
• Acting Chief Executive Officer of a regional health service during the incumbent’s period of leave;

Research, Analysis and Evaluation Projects (including financial modelling and forecasting)

• Tender evaluations for a number of local government contracts;
• Financial evaluation of Ambulance Service tenders to (a) replace a fixed wing aircraft fleet, (b) to support re-tendering of the organisation’s vehicle fleet management and maintenance services and (c) its membership subscription services;
• Supporting the development of a Comprehensive Performance Measurement Framework for Victoria’s largest Arts agencies;
• Organisational review of two water business’s operations and maintenance functions;
• Feasibility of shared equity products to enhance the affordability of housing for low-income households in Victoria;
• Financial modelling and economic analysis of capital project feasibility, risks and funding options for a major health care facility in Melbourne and another in Malaysia;
• A detailed, consultative study for the Department of Human Services specifying issues and funding options to meet the cost of maintaining Victoria’s public cemeteries in perpetuity;
• Reviews of cost allocations for regulated access pricing by energy utilities and to distinguish the costs of various services;
• Independent review of the State Library of Victoria’s finances and an associated Financial and Management Information Review – both for Arts Victoria;
• Reviews of efficiency and effectiveness of corporate health care functions including food and catering, cleaning and environmental services, medical records, engineering and maintenance, diagnostic services (pathology and radiology/medical imaging), security, parking, pharmacy and other aspects of allied health services;
• Review of finance departments’ organisation structures, workloads and functionality;
• Reviews of budget assumptions and performance in health services and an overseas aid enterprise;
• Review of the financial forecasts supporting a proposal by an association to acquire and operate a legal service;
• Review of the valuation of port infrastructure at replacement cost, including jetties and breakwaters;
• Review of valuation bases and accounting for railway tracks in the context of depreciation and maintenance;
• Review of the costs of simultaneous pancreas and kidney transplants to produce guidance for Nationally Funded Centres;
• Developing a performance measurement framework for a quality apprenticeship and traineeship system in Victoria;
• Report on enhancement of non-direct care services at a mental health care facility in country Victoria;

Governance and Planning Projects

• Review of the governance processes of the Library Board of Victoria;
• Review of the Clinical Governance processes of a regional health service;
• Needs assessments and service plans for regional and rural health services;
• Strategic and business planning for health services;
• Preparation of a business continuity plan for youth support association;

Compliance and Risk Management Projects

• Preparation of a complete set of accounting policies to comply with the Standing Directions of the Minister for Finance in Victoria;
• Preparation of manuals of accounting policies and procedures for not-for-profit organisation;
• Preparation of selected accounting policies for the State Electricity Commission of Victoria;
• Review and update of the Department of Health and Community Services’ Cost Centre Accounting Manual on two separate occasions;
• Review of AIMS F1 (Finance Return) and related liquidity indicators for the Victorian Department of Human Services;
• Review of aged care revenue recognition in relation to compliance with Commonwealth requirements;
• Review of compliance by aged care services with the Commonwealth’s requirements for use and refunds of accommodation bonds;
• Review and evaluation of compliance by a professional association with the Associations Incorporation Act, its constitution and other requirements;
• Preparation of risk management policies, strategies, treatment plans and monitoring protocols and documents for a range of clients;
• Creation or review of corporate risk registers for health services, local governments and other organisations;
• Preparation of the first, detailed Quality Assurance Manual for BDO’s management consulting and internal auditing services;
• Active participation in and contribution to BDO’s move to introduce continuous improvement processes and to achieve quality accreditation;
• Acquittal audits of grants received by health care and arts agencies;
• Appointment as Acting CFO and Director of Finance for an organisation to conduct financial analysis and implement solutions to prevent its financial collapse;
• Review and reconciliation of general ledger accounts and substantiating movements for audit purposes;
• Preparing financial statements for audit;

Education and Training – Preparation of Materials, Administration and Presentation

• Annual, residential Graduate Seminar for new staff at Arthur Young & Company, Glenn College, Latrobe University (for three consecutive years);
• Accounting and Auditing Updates for all personnel at Arthur Young & Company around Australia;
• Accounting and Auditing Update for second-year auditors at Arthur Young & Company, Reston, Virginia, USA;
• Financial Management Module, for the Public Service Board of Victoria;
• A case study for hospitals in reporting under the Annual Reporting Act 1983;
• Accounting for Non-Current Physical Assets – Infrastructure in Melbourne and other Places;
• Toolbox for Accountants, Australian Health Services Financial Management Association;
• Continuous Improvement Training for Quality Assurance, BDO Nelson Parkhill;

Performance Appraisal

• Conducting executive performance appraisals and preparing performance measures, targets and achievements to support that process.
• Reviewing and amending position descriptions to meet changed circumstances;

Consultation with Stakeholders

• Chairing the Minister’s Working Party on the Implications of Proposed Recreational Use of Tarago Reservoir;
• Chairing working parties on annual reporting requirements for each of the health, transport, universities and CAEs and TAFE sectors;
• Arranging for expert input to small town sewerage community meetings to deal with costs and benefits of the Government’s proposals; and
• Facilitating a risk identification and assessment seminar for Victoria’s water sector agencies to inform one agency’s first comprehensive risk register.

Plus a wide range of private sector statutory and compliance audits over 11 years – see above.

My Mentors and Guides:  Over this long journey, I have worked with and been supported by many people, without whose patience, assistance and training, I could not have completed the work listed above.  The following list, by its nature, will be incomplete, but these people (and their positions when I worked with them) are acknowledged publicly as significant contributors to my development – and to the career growth of many of my peers:

• John Spence, Partner, Arthur Young & Company
• David Boymal, Partner and Director of Auditing, Arthur Young & Company
• Ron Abbott, Audit Manager, Arthur Young & Company
• Colin Wight, Audit Manager, Arthur Young & Company
• R. John Nabb, Audit Manager, Arthur Young & Company
• Jan Wade, Commissioner for Corporate Affairs for Victoria
• Timothy Holt, Deputy Commissioner, Legislation and Policy, Corporate Affairs Office
• Graham Carpenter, Comptroller-General, Department of Management and Budget (Vic.)
• Geoff Frankish, Director, Public Authorities, Department of Management and Budget (Vic.)
• Penny Hutchinson, Partner, BDO Nelson Parkhill
• Michael Batchelor, Partner, BDO Nelson Parkhill and —

• John Smith, Chief Executive Officer, West Wimmera Health Service – my first and continuous client since 1990.

My colleagues in the Institute of Chartered Accountants’ Contemporary Accounting Problems Discussion Group continue to provide much professional enjoyment and interest at our monthly meetings since I joined the Group in 1974.

Call me on:  +61 417 373 589

Email:  peter@strategicassurance.com.au

Write to me at:  P O Box 314, FAIRFIELD  VIC  3078

ABN 62 064 547 275

*Insight + Hindsight = Foresight is a quote attributed to Russell Murphy.