2011-03-01
“ACL Analytics Exchange equips our clients to choose candidates for compliance monitoring based on improved risk assessments. It’s a sophisticated solution that enhances data coverage and helps clients perform more targeted audit work.”
Yogi Schulz, President, Corvelle Consulting
Corvelle Consulting is a Calgary-based partnership of IT professionals providing organisations with expert advice and project management services. One of their clients is an independent, quasi-judicial government agency that oversees the regulation of oil and gas operators – scrutinising over 100,000 production records submitted monthly. Internal auditors had been using spreadsheets to identify data anomalies in reported production data and wanted to enhance compliance assessments. Based on advice from Corvelle, the agency acquired ACL Analytics Exchange 2009 to implement a risk-based continuous compliance monitoring program. Corvelle was engaged to manage the development of a suite of customised ACL analytics.
With ACL, the team is now able to identify data anomalies and analyse 12-month data trends, allowing them to conduct more meaningful, focused compliance assessments by targeting key noncompliance risk indicators. Reusable analytic scripts developed by ACL consultants and Corvelle data analysis specialists are stored in a secure audit repository, making it simple for audit staff to access tested, approved, repeatable data investigations and maximise compliance assessment efficiency. Using ACL analytics, the audit staff can quickly pinpoint critical exceptions – contributing to stakeholder confidence and industry-wide compliance assurance.
Corvelle Consulting is a partnership of IT professionals providing organisations with expert advice and project management services for creating, maintaining and developing mission-critical information systems. One of their clients, an independent, quasi-judicial government agency, hired Corvelle to design and implement an enhanced audit program for improved risk- and control-based compliance monitoring. The agency regulates 160,000 natural gas and oil wells; 34,000 oil and gas batteries and plants; 400,000 km of pipelines; and 38 commercial oil sands plants.
The agency monitors oil and gas industry compliance, which includes monitoring all production measurement reported to a central petroleum registry. Currently, the industry encompasses over 500 operators and 26,000 active oil and gas production facilities. The mandatory data reporting submitted monthly by industry operators generates an enormous volume of information, exceeding the capabilities of basic spreadsheet software. Analysis was being performed manually with spreadsheet support. Audit staff was only able to sample a tiny percentage of the data population.
In an effort to leverage audit best practices, Corvelle designed an enhanced audit program to deliver an improved risk-and control-based compliance approach. Using ACL Analytics Exchange, the project team created comprehensive data investigations to pinpoint exceptions, errors and anomalies. The project team also engaged ACL Implementation Services to lead the ACL analysis projects and ensure their analytic scripts were thorough and efficient.
An experienced ACL consultant spent two days on-site and wrote several comprehensive master analytic scripts that serve as models for at least 50 other automated analyses. The consulting experience was fast and effective, resulting in improved competency and greater confidence for the data analysts.
As Corvelle implements the enhanced audit program for their client, auditors will be able to perform detailed, 12-month trend analyses. By trending the production data, auditors can better understand activity patterns at each facility and identify production data anomalies. The continuous compliance monitoring program provides comprehensive data coverage. In particular, it will highlight meaningful exceptions and errors while avoiding false positives.
With ACL continuous monitoring, the client auditors can more effectively target their audit work and their fieldwork. ACL enables auditors to limit each audit to several key compliance indicators instead of performing a full-scope audit at each facility.
ACL Analytics Exchange allows Corvelle Consulting to:
Corvelle consultants store master scripts in the Analytics Exchange central audit repository. This secure library ensures the integrity of analysis procedures and provides a convenient way for auditors to access consistent, repeatable data investigations. An ongoing relationship with ACL will continue to enhance ROI and promote accurate investigations based on efficient data extraction and analysis practices.
Corvelle is continuing to develop multiple scripts that will analyse production data from different perspectives to produce facility and operator compliance scores. By sharing these scores with both operators and auditors, the team expects operators to proactively address compliance issues. Operators will be better able toprovide high-quality data and strengthen internal controls at their own facilities.
With ACL, the agency is better equipped to fulfill its mandate and ensure industry-wide compliance – quickly, efficiently and effectively.
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