All Professional Accountants, in Britain or elsewhere, have encountered the problems which have driven John Vine to resign his post as Chief Inspector of Immigration and Border Controls in Great Britain.
Identifying the weaknesses in systems and procedures is the first step. Then reports generally suggest the solutions required and the financial cost or savings of implementing recommendations.
Audit Reports or Operational Reports, are then frequently mislaid, forgotten or buried ! Why ? The real problem is "who is at fault ?" and "who will get the credit for correcting something ?", which should have been corrected long ago ! Will someone get the sack ?
Whether this is at Ministerial Government level, or at the top level in Companies or Groups, this becomes a very thorny and political issue. Everyone wants the credit for improving controls, no one wants to hear that the solution should have been introduced a long time ago !
From reports in the Press, John Vine has done a remarkable and competent job in a difficult area. One can only hope that his next assignment will yield more straight forward, no nonsense reports !
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