Paul is a Chartered Member of the IIA who has worked in Public Sector Internal Audit for almost 20 years. He has worked and audited in various government departments including the Ministry of Defence (including auditing the Afghanistan redeployment), HM Revenue and Customs (focused on Finance, HR and Commercial), Digital Culture Media and Sport, and Business Energy and Industrial Strategy. In 2017 he joined the Government Internal Audit Agency where he was Head of Internal Audit for the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS), the Committee on Climate Change, and the Oil and Gas Authority. His experience in working in many different teams and using many different audit systems, audit processes and methodologies means that he can bring those insights into DAP to help it focus on good practice.
Between August 2019 and September 2020 he worked in the Cabinet Office Grants Management Function, helping to introduce better assurance and risk management processes into grants management in all departments, as well as supporting the function in reducing risks related to the billions of pounds issued in Covid-19 grants.
Paul joined Devon Audit Partnership in October 2020. Since joining DAP he has been working with his team to provide internal audit support to North Devon, Mid Devon, and Torridge and other clients. He is finding that working across several District Councils is helping the team in comparing standards and practices on governance and control arrangements, and to help identify good practice that can be exported. He has also led several Climate Change audits and will continue to encourage councils in meeting the Net Zero challenge. He has not found the adjustment from central to local government too much of a change, with many of the same concerns, risks, and issues, albeit with the added complexity of local democracy. He appreciates the expertise and knowledge of his fellow team members to help fill in his gaps of understanding that he may have on local authority operations. Overall he is enjoying working for councils who have a direct role in supporting local people.
