Description of the contract
While 95 per cent of homes and businesses across Wales have access to fast and reliable broadband, there are a small proportion that cannot enjoy the connectivity they need.
Despite telecommunications not being devolved to Wales, a range of solutions to support those without access to fast and reliable broadband is being provided by the Welsh Government. This includes working with Openreach to bring gigabit capable, full fibre broadband to a further 39,000 properties across Wales using £56m of public funding - made up of Welsh Government and EU funds with some extra funding from the UK Government. These interventions will help to achieve the Welsh Governments Digital Strategy for Wales.
This work builds upon our previous Superfast Cymru roll-out which brought superfast broadband coverage across Wales up to 95% with a public sector investment of over £200m.
A grant agreement is in place between BT and Welsh Government which is being delivered by Openreach. The 39,000 premises are split across three lots covering areas in North Wales, East Wales and the South West and the Valleys. Rigorous testing and verification ensures that the Superfast Cymru project only pays for premises which exceed the speed thresholds, and are eligible for payment under the contract. This process is a key mechanism to ensure the programme delivers value for money
An audit exercise is needed until the end of the programme to provide financial assurance to the Welsh Government and other stakeholders.
The overall function of the audit will be to provide assurance to the WG that funding has been correctly spent and allocated in accordance with funding regulations and the contract. Commissioning an audit within the life of the project will mitigate the risk of funding having to be returned as any issues identified will be resolved prior to final claims being submitted.
The Welsh Government is looking to appoint a supplier to undertake an audit of the current Next Generation Access Broadband Wales Programme (NGABW), the requirements of which are:
• Audit and assure the defrayment of monies paid to the supplier on the programme.
• Assure that all costs incurred relate solely to the Wales programme and fall in line with the programme time scale.
• Ensure that all costs are eligible to the programme
• Carry out periodic site visits to the supplier and complete desk based assurances on the above requirements.
• Carry out desk based sensitivity analyses exercises along with other checks and comparison exercises using both financial and structural datasets.
• To complete “deep dive” exercises as and when requested.
• Carry out any other ad hoc audit requirements within the course of the programme.
• Maintain and update an actions log that details all relevant findings, actions, owners and ineligible expenditure.
• Produce periodic audit reports highlighting findings and attend meetings as and when required.
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