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People going to jail. Two accountants. One Big 4
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I love the UK’s market… it has shown us so many things… Let’s take for example the UK Post Office. Early 2010s. The guys had a problem. Its Horizon accounting system said money was disappearing. Yeah… just like that… And you still wonder about Brexit… Anyway… the Post Office blamed the usual suspects… the people operating it. Hundreds were prosecuted. Some went to prison. Lives were destroyed. And for years, the official position remained essentially the same: The system works. Ole, with 2 eggs. Then they hired Second Sight. A small forensic accounting firm led by two experienced investigators: Ian Henderson and Ron Warmington. No army of consultants. No pyramid of juniors billing hours like children throwing stones to a river. No impressive collection of logos on the opening slide. They examined the actual cases. They followed the transactions. They spoke to the people. And they found bugs capable of creating false accounting shortfalls across 76 Post Office branches. Yeah… And without beautiful Power Points. Then Deloitte was brought in to review Horizon’s systems and controls. Its report reached Version 16. Of course… It contained charts. Frameworks. Assurance maps. And plenty of caveats…. Slides and slides of them… as usual. But it was a desktop review… paid with gold, of course. Deloitte expressly said it had not tested the quality, completeness or accuracy of the underlying assurance work. One internal Post Office email summarised the problem beautifully: If the documented controls had been implemented properly, the system should work. That is an extraordinarily expensive if. The small firm investigated what was actually happening. The large firm reviewed documents describing what was supposed to happen. Not the same thing. Ah… the juniors… But look… This does not mean large advisory firms are useless. They employ some brilliant people. But sometimes… or many, many times… you do not need 30 consultants, six workstreams and a weekly steering committee. Nah… What you need is one person who has seen the problem before. Someone senior enough to recognise what does not make sense. And experienced enough and with a couple of eggs to keep asking uncomfortable questions until it does. That is one of the reasons I founded a small advisory boutique. You do not hire me for the size of our team. You hire us for the judgement of the people actually doing the work. No delegation to someone learning the job with your project. No theatre. No industrial production of billable hours. And by the way… not even with ChatGPT you’ll see me making a beautiful power point. Jail before that… So, if you need help with a PPP or major infrastructure project, you already know where to click. Use this information at your own risk. ONLY 2 SEATS - First arrived, first served.
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Vicente Valencia
Weekly insights on how to perform when it matters | High-stakes decisions. Real situations. No BS. | 👇JOIN +2k readers 👇
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