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Seòmar agus comataidhean

Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 9 July 2025
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Displaying 2597 contributions

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Public Audit Committee

Section 22 Report: “The 2023/24 audit of Ferguson Marine Port Glasgow (Holdings) Limited”

Meeting date: 16 January 2025

Colin Beattie

Are you satisfied as to the competencies of the board members?

Public Audit Committee

Section 22 Report: “The 2023/24 audit of Ferguson Marine Port Glasgow (Holdings) Limited”

Meeting date: 16 January 2025

Colin Beattie

So that was approved by the Scottish Government.

Public Audit Committee

Section 22 Report: “The 2023/24 audit of Ferguson Marine Port Glasgow (Holdings) Limited”

Meeting date: 16 January 2025

Colin Beattie

But is there an indication of sufficient progress being made, and sufficient commitment, to ensure that reviews going forward will be completed?

Public Audit Committee

Section 22 Report: “The 2023/24 audit of Ferguson Marine Port Glasgow (Holdings) Limited”

Meeting date: 16 January 2025

Colin Beattie

So the programme was signed off by internal audit, or at least by the audit committee.

Public Audit Committee

Section 22 Report: “The 2023/24 audit of Ferguson Marine Port Glasgow (Holdings) Limited”

Meeting date: 16 January 2025

Colin Beattie

Can I interrupt you there and ask how many people are on the board?

Public Audit Committee

Section 22 Report: “The 2023/24 audit of Ferguson Marine Port Glasgow (Holdings) Limited”

Meeting date: 16 January 2025

Colin Beattie

The construction of the vessels is an operational issue. The human resources committee is not involved in the building of the vessels; the company has it own structure for what that involves, and we can all get our heads around what that would be. The audit committee is not operationally committed either; it deals with the internal circumstances of the company, as in any other business. I am struggling to see the additional operational pressure on the HR and audit committees because of the construction of vessels.

Public Audit Committee

Section 22 Report: “The 2023/24 audit of Ferguson Marine Port Glasgow (Holdings) Limited”

Meeting date: 16 January 2025

Colin Beattie

Okay. Let us move on. We have talked about risk management and governance arrangements. The thing that stands out in the audit report is where you state that there were

“significant delays to the commencement and completion of reviews that were agreed within the 2023/2024 internal audit plan.”

In paragraph 19 on page 9 of the report, you say that

“internal audit was unable to complete enough reviews to provide an opinion on the overall risk management, control and governance arrangements”.

That is pretty sweeping. Could I get a bit more information on that, to get a better understanding of where the issues arose? Was it a capacity issue in FMPG, an issue with the auditors, or a combination of both? How did that come about?

Public Audit Committee

Section 22 Report: “The 2023/24 audit of Ferguson Marine Port Glasgow (Holdings) Limited”

Meeting date: 16 January 2025

Colin Beattie

You said that internal audit could not do sufficient reviews to give a proper audit opinion. Can you boil that down to a percentage? Did you get half or a quarter of the reviews done, or is it that, across the board, the reviews were not really completed?

Public Audit Committee

Section 22 Report: “The 2023/24 audit of Ferguson Marine Port Glasgow (Holdings) Limited”

Meeting date: 16 January 2025

Colin Beattie

I have one final question on the matter. I can understand that for an organisation that had not, in its existing culture, had an internal audit function, there would be difficulties in adjusting to and taking part in that.

Are you satisfied that sufficient progress is being made in order that the 2025-26 internal audit function will deliver what is required?

Public Audit Committee

Section 22 Report: “The 2023/24 audit of Ferguson Marine Port Glasgow (Holdings) Limited”

Meeting date: 16 January 2025

Colin Beattie

So far, you have not described a plethora of committees. They are the sort of committees that you would expect to see: the human resources committee, the audit committee and so on. Why is that putting so much pressure on the board?