Corporate Governance Reviews

In today’s increasingly regulated environment, directors and other people responsible for corporate governance have significant legal responsibilities.

As a result, they often choose to seek professional help from experts to ensure that their organisation has sound corporate governance procedures and risk management policies.

Regulatory requirements

Our corporate governance team at RSM Farrell Grant Sparks can review the adequacy of controls and systems in your organisation and make recommendations in respect of control weaknesses and any failures in compliance with relevant regulatory requirements.

In particular, we assist directors and others responsible for corporate governance to ensure compliance with:

• Directors’ Compliance Statement (required by public limited companies and some larger private limited companies)
• International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)
• Director’s statement on internal controls
• Mullarkey Report (Republic of Ireland), Cadbury Report (UK) and Treadway Commission (USA)
• Any public sector or other requirements

The issues

Corporate governance reviews are particularly important for directors of large companies. They are also relevant to other companies and organisations with:

• Boards that contain non executive directors
• Responsibilities to account for the use of public funds
• Public interest obligations
• Third-party investors such as grant agencies and venture capital
• Various stakeholders ranging from banks to staff and shareholders

Governance issues may include some of the following; board structure, board composition, internal control procedures, safeguarding of assets, risk management, composition of audit committees, and the implications of “shadow” directors. Other issues include:

• The structure and role of the management team and its interaction with the board
• The reporting structure in a company or organisation
• Structures and roles of board sub-committees
• Responsibilities of key individuals including the chairman, chief executive officer, the company secretary, the senior independent director, executive and non-executive directors
• Policies on remuneration, risk mitigation and fraud
• Interaction between the board and internal and external audit functions
• Communications with stakeholders

International experience

Through our membership of the RSM International network and our experience with multinational clients we can draw on extensive expertise on corporate governance issues in an international context.

Related services

Read about our Internal Audit and Corporate Finance services