SRO responsibilities for an assurance review
start 90 days before the review team arrives

Who is the Senior Responsible Official, and what are they accountable for?

The Senior Responsible Official is the single point of overall accountability for a programme's outcomes, with the authority to make decisions that affect its progress and no role in its day-to-day management. In the Commonwealth the role usually sits at Senior Executive Service Band 2 or 3.

What does an SRO have to do during an assurance review?

The SRO gives the review team full and timely access to people and documents, takes its briefing at the end of each review day, and decides the response to its report. Everything else in the review belongs to the review team.

The commitments are small and fixed, so they go in the diary first. Under the Commonwealth process the SRO briefs the team at a half-day planning meeting about two to three weeks before an onsite review of usually five working days, and documents requested during the review are due within one business day. Victoria budgets the SRO a one hour interview, two hours of planning day, two 15 minute interim briefings and a one hour final briefing.

The daily briefings exist so the report holds no surprises. Use them to correct facts and add information while the team is still forming its view.

What should an SRO do in the 90 days before the review?

Spend the first month on the decision and the evidence, the second on the people and the record, and the last on access. Booking lead times make 90 days the practical minimum: Victoria asks for six to eight weeks to assemble a team, and the planning session falls about two weeks before the review.

A short review compresses the calendar and a complex one stretches it. The order matters more than the dates.

What evidence will the reviewers ask for?

Evidence that already exists: the business case and its benefits, the plan and its funding, the governance record, the risk and issue position, and what was done about the last review. Infrastructure NSW tells agencies to use existing project documentation and to create nothing solely for the review.

• The benefits case. The Commonwealth planning meeting covers the benefits a programme will deliver and how they will be measured, realised and maximised. Expect the reviewers to ask who owns each one.
• The risk and issue position. Commonwealth guidance asks for updated issue and risk logs with the actions taken. Present the register as it stands, including the ratings that have worsened.
• The governance record. Decision logs and the papers the steering committee actually received.
• The plan and the money. Progress to date, resourcing, funding and the work still to come.
• The last review. Under the Commonwealth process the entity completes an Actions Taken record before the next review, and the reviewers mark each recommendation fully, partially or not addressed.

Published document lists are a starting point. Commonwealth reviewers may examine any issue or document they judge relevant.

Who should be on the interview list?

Everyone whose view the decision depends on, including the suppliers who must deliver it and the people who disagree with the plan. The list is agreed with the review team, and under Commonwealth rules the SRO cannot limit the team's access to anyone.

Victoria's guidance draws interviewees from the project team, the department, contractors, consultants and the owner or operator, one at a time, with the SRO first. Interviews are confidential and nothing said is attributed.

Tell interviewees the purpose and the logistics, and stop there. Reviewers hear a rehearsed answer quickly, and a missing name draws more attention than a critical one.

How should an SRO brief the board before and after a review?

Before the review, tell the board which decision is being tested and what the report is likely to say. After it, report the rating with the response already drafted, because under the Commonwealth process one Red, or two Amber ratings in a row, brings a letter from the Secretary of Finance to the accountable authority.

Commonwealth guidance encourages the SRO to keep the accountable authority informed, and counts telling the minister of significant conclusions as better practice. NSW infrastructure reports go to Cabinet, and Victoria copies every final report to its Gateway Unit. A board should never learn the result from someone else.

How should an SRO respond to the recommendations?

Decide quickly and in writing: accept, adapt or decline each recommendation with a reason, give each accepted one an owner and a date, and keep the record the next review will read. Each framework here expects the response to be acted on and tracked.

Commonwealth recommendations are rated Critical, Essential or Recommended. The SRO is encouraged to record how each was implemented or why it was not, and at the second level of Enhanced Notification the accountable authority must seek an action plan from the SRO within 30 business days.

Victoria puts every Red or Amber recommendation into a Recommendation Action Plan. Both NSW frameworks close each review with a Close-out Plan, and an infrastructure project rated Stressed or Low has up to 12 weeks to address its critical recommendations.