During the year under review we conducted a group-wide business process decomposition of our primary project processes, covering key control requirements for functional disciplines such as quality, occupational safety, health and environmental. The result is currently being developed into a comprehensive definition of what we refer to as the Boskalis Way of Working (WoW), covering all relevant disciplines. As part of this effort, our project risk classification approach has also been redefined and harmonized.
The overriding objective of our WoW system is to give our staff the best possible support in achieving operational excellence when concluding and executing commercial contracts. Operational excellence in this context means achieving compliance with the internal and external control requirements imposed on our primary project process with the minimum waste of time and effort. We expect our WoW system to be implemented in the course of 2017.
In 2016 Deloitte Risk Services completed an external quality assessment of our Internal Audit Function (IAF). The principal objective of this was to assess the IAF’s conformance with the International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing (Standards), as issued by The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA). The assessment concluded that the Boskalis IAF conforms with these Standards and this was confirmed by the IIA.
The structure and functioning of our risk management and internal control systems are discussed annually with the Supervisory Board.
However much care is taken in setting up risk management and internal control systems, they are unable to provide absolute certainty with regard to realizing the corporate objectives, nor can they preclude material mistakes, losses, fraud, or infringements of legislation and regulations.
