tailieunhanh - Public risk for private gain? The public audit implications of risk transfer and private finance

Although the market for small public company audits has become much less concentrated since 2002, the continuing concentration in the market for larger public companies limits these companies’ auditor choices but does not appear to have significantly affected audit fees. According to our analysis, the largest accounting firms audit 98 percent of the more than 1,500 largest public companies—those with annual revenues of more than $1 billion. In contrast, midsize and smaller firms audit almost 80 percent of the more than 3,600 smallest companies—those with annual revenues of less than $100 million. Larger public companies we surveyed indicated that the. | Public risk for private gain The public audit implications of risk transfer and private finance July 2004 positively public PUBLIC RISK FOR PRIVATE GAIN Section 1 How PFI Contracts Obscure the Audit Subcontracting in PFI Differentiating between debt and performance payments in the annual PFI charge - the availability Section 2 How PFI Financial Arrangements Obscure the Audit What is risk .12 The risk Combining the roles of equity provider and PFI Other problems with identifying risk Section 3 The Audit of NAO Aims .19 Methods .19 Results .20 Case study 1 New IT systems for Magistrates Courts the Libra Case study 2 Ministry of Defence Joint Services Command and Staff College Case study 3 National Insurance Recording System contract extension NIRS 2 .25 Case study 4 Royal Case Study 5 The cancellation of the benefits payment card Case study 6 Refinancing of Fazakerley Case Study 7 Passport Case Study 8 The Immigration and nationality Directorate s Casework Section 4 Availability of routine data on risk and risk Implications for public Appendix 1 National Air Traffic Services NATS .40 This report was researched and written for UNISON by Allyson Pollock and David Price of the Public Health Policy Unit School of Public Policy UCL Public Risk for Private Gain UNISON Summary The government s main justification for using expensive private finance as opposed to conventional public financing is that its higher cost is a product of risks transferred from the public to the private sector. According to the government the rate of interest on private finance is higher than the rate of interest on conventional public financing because it includes a premium for assuming risks formerly underwritten by the taxpayer. The premium