Audit of the Data Communications Company (DCC)

Description

Under the Operational Performance Regime (OPR) contract management incentive, the auditor assesses the DCC’s management of its contracts. The auditor is tasked with using the scope listed in the most up to date version OPR Guidance document to assess DCC’s contract management performance against the National Auditing Office (NAO) Framework.
Main tasks:
*Assessment of DCC’s commercial activity over the course of the Regulatory Year.
*The auditor will provide a score of DCC’s performance using the NAO Framework. Ofgem will use these scores to determine the final score to be awarded to DCC.
The audit will run on an annual basis and have four main stages:
*Evaluation stage – This will run for around six weeks where the auditor will carry out an assessment of DCC’s commercial activity in the Regulatory Year. The auditor will provide DCC with an interim report which will contain a score and rationale against each supporting question against the NAO Framework.
*Reporting - The auditor will provide a draft report to the Authority which will include DCC’s level of attainment against the NAO Framework. The Authority may ask for iteration of the report before the final version is produced and shared with us.
*Consultation stage – The Authority will publish a summary of report findings and consult on this – no further action is required from the Consultant at this stage.
*Decision – The Authority will consider the responses from stakeholders on the consultation and determine DCC’s retained margin. We may ask the Consultants for further clarification around the scores during this stage.