WRITING PROCEDURES FOR WORKING PROCESSES

Legal basis

The Head of entity is obliged to establish the organizational structure and procedures that will ensure the functioning, monitoring and development of an efficient system of sound financial management and control, taking in account the specific of the subject, and activities that are financed, the risks during the work, applying the standards for internal control, basic elements of financial management and control, technical instructions and guidelines for financial management and control by the Ministry of Finance. ( Article 5 from the law of Public Internal Financial Control, Official Gazette of Republic of Macedonia, no 22/07 )

Standards for internal controls in public sector

According to Standard 12. Procedures of the law on the basic elements of financial management and control standards in the public sector ( Official Gazette of Republic of Macedonia, no 72/07 ) Each entity of the public sector should

establish written procedures for critical activities, especially economic activities and they deliver them to all employees involved. Procedures should be clear, complete and classified. According to basic provision of this standard :

• For each activity and/or significant event, the subject of the public sector should ensure existence of adequate documentation and documentation of operations
• The documentation should be complete, accurate and in accordance with the structures and policies of the entity from the public sector.
• The documentation should include administrative policies, manuals, operating instructions, checklists or other forms of presentation of the procedures
• The documentation should be updated, useful, accurate, easily accessible for inspection and supervisors, employees and third parties if necessary;
• Documentation should ensure consistency of operations despite fluctuation of employees;
• Should bear in mind that the absence of documentation, incomplete and / or not updated documentation, represents risk in the road of achieving objectives.
• Subjects in the public sector should prepare a legal act for the movement of documentation for each level of responsibility and monitor their implementation.

Procedures for working processes should be written because of :

• determining the tasks and responsibilities of each employee in the subject,
• help during transfer of knowledge
• providing independent execution processes and
• continuous execution of tasks.

Important aspects in the writing of procedures

For each activity of the process should provide a written explanation which contains answers to questions:

What should be done?
Who should perform the activity?
Why should perform a defined activity?
When to perform and
Where ?
 

Risk assessment in writing procedures for business processes

In describing the processes is necessary to assess the level of risk for each activity within the process. In the situation where will be noticed high-risk (and sometimes medium risk) it is necessary to establish control measures to reduce risk to acceptable levels. This includes the introduction of checklists or division of functions and provide documented control.

Levels of description of processes

• Analyses of the processes
• Detailed timetable of the process (diagram of flows)
• Work instructions (in detail)

12 STEPS IN WRITING PROCEDURES FOR WORKING PROCESSES

Step 1st Understanding the need to describe (documentation of) the process.

Processes, before description, should be well understood by staff involved in enforcement activities and the volume of the same. Often several different

employees understand the processes in different ways. Therefore it is necessary to create a common view on the performance of activities within the process.

Step 2nd Providing details about the process at high level

To improve understanding of the process, provide details on the process at higher level. Specify the owner of the process. Owner of a process is the manager who gives instructions on how to carry out the process. Determine the responsible employee who will conduct activities in the process of accurate, reliable, effective and efficient manner in accordance with instructions given by the owner of the process.

Step 3rd Determination of process name.

Specify only one name for the process in order to distinguish it from other processes.

Step 4th Statement of activities in the process
Identify all the activities to be carried out within the process.

Step 5th Determination of process limits
Determine the limits of the process, that establish exactly where it begins and where it ends. Determine the scope of the process and establish the associated processes.

Step 6th Developing diagram of the steps of the activities and decision points
Diagram consists of several activities. Each activity is represented by a symbol. Frequently used 3 different characters and so on: the symbol to identify the beginning and end of the process, a symbol of activity and a symbol of a decision or control in the process.

Step 7th Describe the method of distribution
Describe the manner of submission of documents (data). For example: mail, internal orders, email, phone, fax and more.

Step 8th Conducting observations on the process
Peoples who document the processes are necessary to record the tasks and responsibilities of each employee and in particular deadlines (timeliness) to carry out activities, completeness and other important qualitative requirements and details related to the process.

Step 9th Description of used information technology
Describe Information Technology (software) used in carrying out activities in the process and the way they conducted the data entry process.

Step 10th Describe the documents used
List the documents that are used within the process

Step 11th Receiving a response from experts and users
Procedure send it to the experts and users to obtain their observations and comments to improve the quality of the documented process.

Step 12th Obtaining approval from the management of the process
Lead the procedure to the top management in order to get approval and obtain a basis for implementation.

All data obtained from the above steps full fill in the form for preparation of working procedures / internal act – working procedure

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