Quality Delegation Services / Overseeing

Reports about themselves are not monitoring

The partner cannot audit the partner.

The commonest oversight arrangement is a periodic report supplied by the partner, reviewed by the principal, and filed. It establishes that the partner is willing to produce a report, which is not in doubt.

Genuine monitoring requires at least one source the partner does not control. Direct contact with clients, observation of delivery, examination of records the principal accesses itself, and independent checking of what is being published are the realistic options.

Client contact is the highest yield and the least used. A short call to a sample of clients, asking what they were told before they enrolled and what they are actually receiving, surfaces marketing and delivery problems that no report will contain.

The sample does not have to be large. Five clients per partner per period will find a systematic problem if one exists, and it is a few hours of work that replaces a considerably larger volume of documentary review.

It also changes the partner's behaviour, because they know it happens. Announced annual audit changes behaviour for a week; the knowledge that clients are contacted routinely changes it continuously.