Private & Confidential - Subject to Legal Privilege
POL00023449
POL.00023449
Suspense Accounts
Ref. ‘Question Rationale for Question Value of Question ifwe I Key Personnel I Scope / Procedures to be ‘Associated cost
‘are unable to answer it to speak with Discussed
(TBC by POL)
32ia I Arethere any other I Without an answer to this NA TBC LEVEL ONE OPTION: £2,904
suspense accounts I question, POL’s defence against
otherthan those _I the allegations being made Inspect chart of accounts for
listed below? against itin relation to names which would appear
suspense accounts could be indicative of suspense
Customer Creditor _ I undermined. accounts and highlight
(61626205) ~
intended to relate to LEVEL TWO OPTION £18,404
differences between
‘end consumers in Inspect chart of accounts for
Post Office branches names which would appear
and POL = First Indicative of suspense
Posting in July 2010; accounts and classify as red,
amber or green,
Client Creditor
(61626200) - Red = Known suspense
intended to relate to account
differences between Amber = Possibly a suspense
POL clients (e.g. account
Santander) and POL Green = Known not to be a
—First Posting in suspense account
December 2005;
Review balances associated
Paystation Creditor with amber classified
(61629122)- similar accounts and sample a
to Client Creditor but number of accounts for
specifically for the further investigation and
Paystation product ~ discussion with POL finance.
First Posting in LEVEL THREE OPTION: £53,020
December 2003;
Level 1 and 2 procedures
Branch Creditor /
Current Agents Plus data analytics to review
Customer Creditor transactions processed
(61626210) - through a sample of possible
intended to relate to suspense accounts (amber)
differences between and other accounts.
Post Office branches
and POL-First This will validate that status
Posting in May of the sampled accounts is as
2012); thought.
Local Suspense
(6153591). First
Posting November
2005.
‘ATM Surplus
(61626206) - created
post-August 2013 for
the purpose of
branches declaring
surpluses in their
ATM identified
through balancing
the ATM (First
Posting October
2013.
Subtotal £2,904 - £74,328
3.21b I Who currentiyhas I Restricting access to posting to I Ifwe aren't able to TBC Walkthrough with POL £9,410
access to post to
suspense accounts?
Is that broadly
consistent with the
historic position
suspense accounts is an
important control on the
correct use of the facility. We
need to establish whether this
control isin place/operating
effectively.
The majority of claimants are
former postmasters. If we can
establish that the current
position is broadly consistent
with the historic position, it will
strengthen our defence in
relation to those historic claims.
establish the historic
Position we will focus on
the present day.
Understanding why we
are unable to establish
tthe historic position will
help shape defence
strategy.
Finance staff how access to
suspense accounts is
restricted
Perform testing of this access
as of today.
Enquire with POL Finance
staff whether an audit trail of
historical access is available
within POLSAP.
Provide representation on
historical situation.
Test historical access rights if
possible (deemed unlikely
Private & Confidential - Subject to Legal Privilege
POL00023449
POL.00023449
Suspense Accounts
Ref. Question Rationale for Question Value of Question ifwe I Key Personnel I Scope / Procedures to be ‘Associated cost
‘are unable to answer it to speak with Discussed
(TBC by POL)
3.2ic I What is POL's To determine the parameters of I This will establish TBC Walkthrough with POL £5,072
archiving policy inI the data/information available _I whether data is available Finance staff how archiving is,
SAP? tous. for each of the individual configured
Claimants’ branches. Obtain evidence of archiving
Ifthe Finance Service policy in SAP - aligned to
Centre need to view suspense accounts and
particular suspense testing suitably tallored to
transactions that this
were no longer
available in SAP due
to the archiving Walkthrough with POL
Policy, could they be Finance staff any alternative
retrieved by another means of retrieving
means (and, if so, transactions outside of
how)? POLSAP archiving
3.2id I What do the ‘probity I To understand the extent of I__I Knowing the extent to I TBC Walkthrough with POL £9,794
checks' of suspense I evidence available to support I which records of probity Finance staff how probity
accounts carried out I that that the operation of checks are kept will checks are carried out, and
by the Finance suspense accounts are ‘enable POL to decide whether there have been
Service Centre appropriately controlled how much weight to changes to the process over
consist of? attribute to this point in past years, together with the
itis also important to its defence. records maintained of the
What records of understand the rationale for probity checks being
probity checks are I when and why a particular performed
kept? suspense account is used/the Understand the different
interplay between them. This is usages of client
‘Whats the interplay I an extension of creditor/customer creditor
between the Client I question3.2.1(a) and the branch creditor
Creditor/Customer account
Creditor
‘Accounts and the
Branch Creditor
‘Account and why
would a discrepancy
be placed in one
account over
another?
3.2ie I What proportion of I To understand the proportion I We understand that this I TBC Walkthrough with POL #3954
entries to the of entries that are resolved information should be Finance Staff to understand
suspense accounts _I through sums being returned to I available how the process would,
(by both number and I branches and, conversely, the function for returning sums
value) are resolved I proportion that are resolved to branches
through sums being I through sums being returned to Formulate proposed
returned to clients approach to conducting
branches? analytics over this data and
agree with POL for
undertaking
3.2if I Howmuch hasbeen I This will clarify the scale of the I We understand that this I TBC Walkthrough with POL £9,398
released from each _I issue and therefore its potential I information should be Finance staff to understand
suspense account to I significance in the litigation. I available how the process would
POL's P&L account in function for releasing
each quarter from balances suspense accounts
the beginning of the to POL's P&L
2015/16 financial Obtain relevant time boxed
year to date? data and perform profiling
analytics thereon
Subtotal £37,628
3.22 I Investigate the end- I The output of this question will I We understand that this I TBC ‘Modelling costs for one £40,504
tovend accounting
process (from
transaction in branch
to final
reconciliation) for
the Products and
produce a detailed
description of that
process includin
form the basis of POL's
response to the Claimants!
allegation,
The plan is to map out the end-
to-end accounting process for 2
specific product or products
and explain the controls and
procedures that are in place to
information should be
available
product process
Required number of enquiry
and walkthrough sessions
with POL Finance staff in
order to understand the
process for the chosen
product:
Private & Confidential - Subject to Legal Privilege
‘Suspense Accounts
POL.00023449
Ref, ‘Question Rationale for Question Value of Question ifwe I Key Personnel I Scope / Procedures to be ‘Associated cost
are unable to answerit I to speak with Discussed
(Tac by POL)
‘ensure that branches do not Produce process map and
(a) why accounting incur discrepancies that associated identified controls
discrepancies may could/should be resolved. to support the achievement
arise; of the following objectives
This will give usa platform to Gerived from the above
(bo) how assert that the position is the statements (a~f)
discrepancies are ‘same for all other products (our a) For Product X controls are
resolved; position is that it would be in place to ensure the
disproportionate to carry out completeness, accuracy and
(c)what happens to I this work in relation to every validity of postings to the
unresolved product) relevant suspense accounts
discrepancies; (Client Credit Account (or any
other suspense account
(d) how and why are 'b) For Product X controls in
some discrepancies place to ensure the
transferred to the completeness, accuracy and
Client Credit Account validity of postings to the
(orto any other PAL, from suspense accounts
suspense account); Sufficient investigations
are conducted in a thorough
(e) what happens to ‘manner, to investigate items
debits / credits in a within the suspense accounts
suspense account; to try and determine their
and origins and attribute to other
accounting balances (ie, to
() what safeguards remove them from suspense
are inplace to and account for them
address the risk that, correctly
any debits / credits in <) Adequate processes and
@ suspense account, procedures are in place to
or taken into P&L deal with branch staff in
from suspense, are instances where unexplained
not related toa items have the potential to
shortfall, surplus or cause a surplus or shortfall in
other accounting branch accounts
discrepancy in a Test the controls against the
branch four objective statements
highlighted above, in order to
comment on questions a) ~f)
above
Sub Total £40,504
Total £81,306 - £152,460