� The ICT Internal Audit Report raises concerns on a lack of Business Continuity Plan,
ICT Risk Assessment and an ICT Contingency Plan.
2.6 Financial Accounting and Control Systems
2.6.1 We recommend that GMC, GCNS and CC carry out a detailed review of the management
information systems to ascertain which systems would be most appropriate for the merged
college, although we understand GMC's accounting systems will be utilised initially post
merger.
2.6.2 We recommend that the costs of the detailed review are built into the SFC merger funding
application.
2.7 Financial Performance
2.7.1 From our review of the performance indicators for 2008/2009 of GMC against sector
average the following are the main points to note: -
a) GMC has a particularly strong cash and reserves position;
b) GMC receive slightly more of its income from SFC on a percentage basis than the
sector average;
c) GMC has slightly higher dependency on European Income than the sector average.
2.7.2 On benchmarking GMC against CC and GCNS for 2008/2009 the following are the main
points to note: -
a) Staff costs as a percentage of total expenditure are significantly higher at CC and
GCNS than at GMC;
b) GMC generates stronger surpluses than CC or GCNS;
c) GMC and GCNS have stronger balance sheets with greater liquidity, cash and reserves
than CC;
d) GCNS has a higher reliance on Education Contracts and Tuition Fees than either
GMC or CC.
2.8 Operational Performance
2.8.1 From our review of the SUMs delivery from 2006/07 to 2008/2009 we note the following
points: -
a) GMC has over delivered significantly against its SUMs targets in each year;
b) The unit cost per wSUM for each college is as follows:
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Appendix 5: Due Diligence Executive Summaries