The role of assurance is to provide information to those that sponsor, govern and manage a project to help them make better informed decisions to reduce the causes of project failure and promote the conditions for success.
HM Treasury has clearly stated that departments are accountable for assuring their projects and that Accounting Officers must assure their projects against the Common Causes of Project Failure. Organisations must put in place arrangements to provide assurance to the board, the Accounting Officer and ultimately Ministers about what is being achieved, to what standards and with what effect across their portfolio of projects. It is also the responsibility of the organisation being assured to act on any findings or recommendations.6
The OGC, through authority devolved from HM Treasury, provides assurance to all high risk projects7. The type of assurance individual projects receive depends on an assessment of the project risk. Senior Responsible Owners (SROs) complete a Risk Potential Assessment after which a project is classified as high, medium or low risk.
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6 HM Treasury, Managing Public Money, 2007.
7 Departments are responsible for providing Gateway assurance to medium and low risk projects.