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Message
From: Jo Milton f
on behalf of — Jo Milton <
Sent: 14/01/2020 14:
To: Alison J Clark {
cc: Tim Perkins [~ “i; Zoe Brauer {7
Subject: FINAL Revised Audit , 9and 11
Attachments: Chapter 03 Performing a Branch Audit v8.0 July 2019.docx; Chapter 01 Audit Plan Scheduling V8.0 Oct 2019.D0CX;
Chapter 05 Closure Audit (All Models) V8.0 Sep 2019.DOCX; Chapter 06 Robbery Burglary Audits V8.0 Oct
2019.DOCX; Chapter O6b Robbery Burglary Workaid V8.1 Jan 2020.docx; Chapter 11 Quality Assurance V7.0 October
2019.doc; Chapter 09 Retention of Papers v5.1 Jan 2020.DOCX
Hi all,
Please find attached the revised audit chapters.
Those that we sent to legal are signed off — there are some areas where they had commented, we’d gone back with an
explanation and they said “noted”. I’ve talked through these with Alison and collated the comments so you can see.
these below — please don’t forward the comments on. The documents with the comments on are held by legal.
The attached versions are clean copies and should be uploaded to SharePoint and trained out to all audit advisors and
the Casework Support team.
Please note that we need to retain these documents for 7 years, so the existing ones should only ever be archived, (and
Simon has since confirmed this happens), and later sent to the Postal Museum. I’ve spoken to Alison who will start a
review into the retention of working papers of 60 days, which is considered too short and should be extended
considerably. Once process around increased retention for working papers is agreed, most chapters will need to be
updated to reflect this.
e Please consider if the Training and Onboarding Team need to see Ch 3 to use it in conjunction with the Transfer
Chapter, or is the Transfer Chapter enough alone?
e And can we check that Training and Onboarding have no access to the OLD versions of these docs (any access
they have should be the most up to date)?
e [have made the review dates of all of these documents Jun 2020 as although they were written between
July/Oct, they’ve only been signed off for use in December.
e As the legal review of these is complete, this draws a line in the sand — we can continue to review and improve
as necessary and don’t need to wait until June. The orange ones below should be considered for immediate
review.
Chapter Summary
consider
Chapter 1 Audit Plan Approved by Re-written by us I No comments remaining on this
Scheduling legal chapter
Ready for use
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Chapter 3 Performing a 8.0 Approved by Re-written by us I 1. It was recommended POL
Branch Audit legal update contracts to include a
Ready for use more comprehensive audit
clause - so all the necessary
rights etc. are drawn together
in one place. This should sit
with legal.
2. They asked that we check if the
audited branch is a claimant so
this has been added to Ch.1
processes and confirmed with
Alison and Rachelle.
3. WBD - "Making good" in
relation to TAs was queried but
I explained in this case it
referred to standard practice
used to account for Paystation
and services not linked to
Horizon where the money is
held for a day.
Chapter 5 Closure 8.0 Approved by Closure chapter It was queried why we need to
Workaid legal without Horizon check if there are unresolved
Ready for use and Closure items that need TCs. We replied
Work aid have to say that this is and action to
been merged help reflect the assets
physically present at the time of
the audit closure and that we
would be doing this in plenty of
time to arrange for the relevant
balancing TCs to be sent.
2. It was pointed out that POL
were criticised on relying on the
Official Secrets Act to destroy
things as this is the basis on
which the outgoing Pmr should
destroy obsolete docs. We
advised "The responsibility for
destruction lies with the
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Operator. Post Office advise
them to keep trading
statements for 6 years,
Moneygram for 5 and all other
for 2. At closure, these items
that are still required to be
retained are sent to Oasis and
archived. Any older items need
to be destroyed and this is the
responsibility of the Operator.
As a separate piece of work, the
Audit team are reviewing their
data retention policy."
The following statement was
queried "Discrepancies to be
resolved prior to remitting out
all cash and stock by selling or
reversing." They said “We
would need further information
as to how this process works,
and at what point Post Office
will be "remitting out all cash
and stock" in order to advise
how this ties in with the CIT
Judgment. Will this be after a
proper investigation in line with
the new CIT Judgment?” We
replied, “As with the normal
audit process, this is an action
to reflect the current assets
physically present at the time of
the audit. Once the audit is
complete, Discrepancy 1 after
termination would be sent
which offers a chance of
dispute.” Alison also has a
bigger piece of work on this
regarding selling and reversing.
Paystation accounting was
queried - "This will tell you how
much cash to secure from the
retail side of the branch and
place this in the PO account. (
Any cash discrepancy will be
accounted as a final account
surplus as per normal practise
against the outgoing
Agent/Postmaster)
“Again we will need further
information as to the process
that is followed in order to
determine if any changes need
to be made in light of the CIT
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Judgment. What steps are
taken if a discrepancy is
identified?" We advised "As
with the normal audit process,
this is an action to reflect the
current assets physically
present at the time of the audit.
Once the audit is complete,
Discrepancy 1 after termination
would be sent which offers a
chance of dispute."
Cash Centres
How to fill in Should we have
an Audit reviewed?
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Chapter 10 I How to fill out I TBC Review in Working with on I Not reviewed by legal
aP250 progress boarding
Chapter 11 I Quality V7.0 No comments Updated by No comments on this chapter
Assurance from legal Simon Talbot.
No legal
comments on
this
Please can you confirm back to me when they've been rolled out?
Thanks
Jo
Jo Milton
Contractor
Network Operations
Post Office Ltd
GRO
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