In a typical alliance, the Participants are effectively jointly responsible for managing the expenditure of public funds. This is fundamentally different to the way contractors are paid under traditional contracts. An alliance needs to ensure that public funds are expended prudently, properly and wisely, including addressing public accountability issues that may arise for Owners in connection with related party transactions, where related NOP companies may act as suppliers to the alliance.
The role of the Owner's financial auditor is typically limited to verifying that the Participants' costs have been actually and reasonably incurred. The alliance financial auditor checks that expenditure has been actually incurred in accordance with pre-determined processes and authority levels. The Owner should consider supplementing the financial auditor role to verify that expenditure by the alliance has been incurred in accordance with the Owner's VfM statement and government procurement standards; and in the most efficient, effective and economical way.