Government managers and superintendents are the stewards of public resources. Even small governments manage millions in taxpayer dollars and capital assets. For a manager, trying to manage all these public assets with poorly designed, poorly executed, poorly monitored, or even non-existent controls is just asking for trouble. To be a better steward, a manager needs to ensure that the controls they have in place are adequate for the risks faced and are being executed competently and consistently.

Blue Star can perform assessments of the internal controls currently in place and provide advice on how to improve them. This assessment includes identifying risks, assessing their likelihood of occurrence and potential impact to the government, reviewing current controls to determine if they’re responsive to the identified risks, and offering suggestions on how to strengthen your system of internal control.

Strengthening internal control does not mean simply adding more control procedures. Rather, it means engineering your control procedures to be responsive to identified risks. It also means prioritizing certain risks over others so that the those risks that pose the greatest threats to the organization are addressed first. After all, no organization has unlimited resources, so focusing resources on the highest-level risks gets more bang for your buck.

Ours is a thoughtful, targeted approach to developing and maintaining a system of internal controls – not just a “well, that’s what we’ve always done” approach. This results in a more effective and more efficient management of risks to your organization.