Task 01SPC is a listed company manufactures electronic products based in Muscat, Oman. The company has a global supply chain, and it employs more than 6000 employees in home country. The company is highly centralized and mainly dependents on its computer systems for customer order processing, manufacturing planning, inventory control, purchasing, and accounting. These computer systems have been used form any years and are not integrated. Data must be extracted from one system and manually keyed into other systems. This lack of integration has caused a major problem for SPC due to the inconsistency of the data held in the different systems. The inconsistencies have resulted in unreliable management information. Although it is thought that information from the accounting system can be relied on, it is difficult to reconcile it with information from the sales, purchasing and production systems. The reports that are provided to the senior managers of SPC include spreadsheets that show summarized data that has been extracted from several systems. The information systems used in SPC’s were openly criticized by head of departments.  The Information Technology (IT) department headed by Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO) is responsible for maintenance of hardware and software ate SPC.. The team of programmers at IT department had observed an increasing trend of complaints receiving on IT systems used by various departments at SPC. Therefore, the CKO had argued the need to update the company’s computer systems. The Finance Department of the company headed by Chief Financial Officer(CFO) is responsible for producing management reports for the Board and the senior management team. CFO is highly concern about the accuracy of the information he is receives from different type of computer systems used by SPC when he presents his report to the Board and the management team.  The Internal Audit Department headed by the Chief Internal Auditor (CIA) is responsible for carrying out the internal audit plan that has been ratified by SPC’s Audit Committee. The CIA has openly criticized the lack of integration of the computer systems and has highlighted the weaknesses in financial and non-financial management information that can result from systems which use inconsistent data, and the possible effects this could have. During the recent management meeting held the Chief Executive Officer (CEO)informed that the company should move to a Just In Time (JIT) production environment to maintain its competitive position. He supported the arguments put forward by CKO, CFO and CIA on developing a new integrated system which could be linked to suppliers’ and customers’ systems as the integrated system will enable better integration of SPC’s business with that of its supply chain and customer base. Also, the SPC company seeks to apply sound corporate governance principles. The company has established a Risk Management Group headed by Chief Risk Officer(CRO). The Risk Management Group and Internal Audit team recommend and3 monitor internal controls and report directly to the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors.

Question:

Evaluating the internal control within the SPC company.