The Third Line of Assurance (Confidence in the Management of Assets)

You are an asset owner. What confidence should you have that those operating and maintaining your assets are capable and “doing a good job”? With organizations more and more commonly outsourcing their maintenance and operations, and even the management of assets, there must be assurance activities in place, assurance to provide confidence that third parties will deliver what is asked and that their approach is sustainable in the long term. A three-lines-of-assurance approach provides asset owners, operators, and maintainers with layers of audit to assess the effectiveness of risk and control functions. The third line assessment is aligned to the audit and risk function and is for executive or board committees. This presentation will explore case studies where an organization may have benefited or has benefited from third line assurance. The three lines of assurance can be characterized as follows: First Line—how operational managers own and manage their asset risk and maintain effective internal controls; Second Line—how management establishes compliance functions that facilitate and monitor operational practices; and Third Line—expected to provide executive management, audit and risk committees, and governing boards with a means of addressing their responsibilities and accountabilities for meeting their corporate objectives or regulatory requirements. The third line is expected to provide high-level independent assurance on organizational effectiveness. Assurance is a fundamental of asset management; it should provide confidence that assets will fulfil their required purpose. It is hypothesized that, as an industry, we would do well to focus on assurance (giving and receiving) and, more importantly, capability building. Public asset owners in particular should be investing in their organizational capability, and industry should be focused on providing enduring uplift in knowledge and management system improvement. Asset owners cannot separate themselves from their assets and the realization of organizational outcomes. Independent review and advice at the third line should provide the assurance required to give confidence that those operating and maintaining your assets are capable and are “doing a good job.”