Maura Sullivan has been appointed as chair of the Cabinet Office Audit and Risk Committee for a term of three years.
Sullivan is “a finance professional with an executive career spanning board-level CFO roles in banking, asset management and pensions”, the Cabinet Office said in a statement.
Her experience includes working in “complex international organisations”, managing large teams and leading “large transformation programmes”, it added.
Her non-executive director posts include positions as chair of the Audit and Compliance Committee for Marsden Building Society and chair of the Audit and Risk Committee for Government Facilities Management Services Limited, an arm's-length body of the MoJ.
She succeeds Mike Ashley, who was head of quality and risk management of KPMG Europe for 35 years before retiring in 2013. He took up the role of COARC chair in 2018.
The role of COARC chair, which was first advertised last year, is remunerated at £20,000 per annum based on 24 days’ work a year – equivalent to £833 per day.
Responsibilities include reviewing the departmental strategic risk register; providing challenge, advice and feedback; and advising and scrutinising the department’s implementation of corporate governance policies. There is an expectation to chair around four or five committee meetings a year.
Appointments are for a three-year term with the possibility of re-appointment for a further term, at the discretion of ministers.
COARC is a sub-committee of the Cabinet Office Board – an independent body that provides strategic and operational leadership for the department. Membership of the Cabinet Office Board comprises Cabinet Office ministers, senior executives, and non-executives from outside government.
COARC’s role is to support the Cabinet Office Board by providing an independent view of the department’s risk, control and governance arrangements. It also reviews and recommends the approval of accounts for the Cabinet Office, Office of the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists, Civil Superannuation, and the Royal Mail Statutory Pension Scheme.