Assurance is internal to DE&S and was formally established in late 2007 in order to define a single coherent assurance process across what were previously the DPA and the DLO. The purpose of Assurance, through ongoing engagement with the IPT, is to reassure the Investment Approvals Board that DE&S has the ability to deliver its various investments at all stages of the CADMID cycle.
At conception all projects are required to produce a tailored assurance plan that is agreed with assurors and owned by the IPT, which covers the following functional categories:
• Finance;
• Commercial;
• Safety and Engineering (Risk, Project Management, Technology Integration, through life support and NEC);
• Human Resources;
• Joint Support Chain; and
• Information Systems.
Sign off must be achieved in each of these areas and approved by the DE&SIB prior to IAB submission (DE&S CoS for Category C projects). As a result, this constitutes an onerous task which IPTs must undertake, for little perceived benefit.
By contrast, Scrutiny provides an independent, expert and critical analysis of investment proposals, once approved by DE&S but prior to submission to the IAB107. The Scrutiny team sit within MoD Centre and provide a notionally independent assessment prior to IAB submission of whether the evidence submitted supports the business case proposal.
Scrutiny tends to take a wider view than the assurance process and considers factors such as value for money, future planning and whether the proposal is relevant to current requirements. Each scrutiny team is made up of around 5 scrutineers and a scrutiny function has existed in some form since before the introduction of Smart Acquisition.
The scrutiny process is generally viewed as effective and valuable within DE&S, but there are a number of issues raised around the assurance system:
• low level of value add to the process ("checking homework rather than guiding thought");
• onerous process to engage parties outside the IPT and direct chain of command; and
• too many parties involved to provide potential roadblocks to project progress (many of whom are not incentivised to deliver the equipment in the way that the IPT is tasked to).
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107 DE&S Standing Instruction No.21 - Through Life Investment Assurance Framework, V.2.0, November 2008