DA Partnership announces strategic alliance with Mazars
DA Partnership is working with Mazars LLP in its bid for Audit Commission tenders. The bid will combine the leadership and public audit expertise of the Commission’s audit practice with the commercial and technical capacity of a leading national and international accountancy and advisory firm.
- DA Partnership is working with Mazars LLP in its bid for Audit Commission tenders.
- The bid will combine the leadership and public audit expertise of the Commission’s audit practice with the commercial and technical capacity of a leading national and international accountancy and advisory firm.
- Gareth Davies, Managing Director-designate of DA Partnership, and Mike Attenborough-Cox, Public Services Partner at Mazars, to lead the joint team in the bid process.
DA Partnership, is an employee-owned organisation formed to bid for the audit work being tendered by the Audit Commission. Gareth Davies today announces that DA Partnership has chosen Mazars as its strategic partner to further enhance the capabilities, technical expertise and resource it can offer in the bid.
If it is successful in the tender process, the alliance will deliver a number of benefits:
- Top quality audit services that combine the unrivalled public audit expertise of the Audit Commission's auditors with Mazars' professional infrastructure, technical expertise and recognised commitment to client service;
- Easy access to the full range of advisory services provided by DA Partnership's public services experts and Mazars’ commercial advisory teams; and
- Value for money from a lean and focused employee-owned business.
DA Partnership aims to provide a distinctive choice of auditor to public sector clients. The Managing Director-designate of DA Partnership is Gareth Davies, who is leading the team preparing the bid whilst taking leave of absence from his role as head of the audit practice at the Commission.
Gareth said: “Our aim is to provide a competitive bid so that we can create a vibrant new employee-owned firm to offer high quality audit and advisory services across the public sector. We are delighted to be working on the bid with Mazars, who will add huge value to our proposal. If our bid is successful, we look forward to offering our clients the benefits our alliance will generate.”
David Herbinet, Head of Public Interest Markets for Mazars in the UK, said “DA Partnership is an exciting venture that would retain a critical mass of public audit expertise for the benefit of public bodies and taxpayers. We are excited that they have chosen to work with Mazars; it is a significant endorsement of our expertise and integrity and creates an offer for the public sector that provides the best of both commercial and public sector auditing expertise and skill sets.”
ENDS
For more information, please contact:
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Simon Evans, Weber Shandwick
020 7067 0194 / 07812 590 682
sevans@webershandwick.com
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Christian Ball, Mazars
020 7063 4547 / 07794 031 172
christian.ball@mazars.co.uk
Note to editors
About DA Partnership (www.dapartnership.com )
DA Partnership has been formed by employees of the Audit Commission’s audit practice in order to bid for the audit work currently carried out by the practice.
The Audit Commission is outsourcing this audit work and expects to award contracts in February 2012 for a start date of October 2012. DA Partnership will commence trading if it is successful in winning a viable market share from this outsourcing exercise.
The DA Partnership bid is being led by Gareth Davies, whilst on leave of absence from his role as head of the audit practice at the Commission. Gareth has worked in public audit for 24 years, and has held several senior roles at the Audit Commission.
The Board and Management Team of the new company will be announced in the event that the bid is successful.
DA Partnership will be majority owned by all its employees. Mazars will take a stake, reflecting the firm’s investment in the bid and its role as DA Partnership’s strategic partner should the bid prove successful. A proportion of DA Partnership’s profits will go to a new charitable foundation whose remit will be to commission original research into innovative ways of improving performance, value for money, governance and financial management and reporting.
The name DA Partnership is a reference to the District Audit Service, the previous name of the Commission’s Audit Practice. District Auditors (known as DAs) have audited local authorities since 1844, and this heritage is an important part of the identity of the new firm.
About Mazars LLP:
Mazars is an international, integrated and independent organisation, specialising in audit, accountancy, tax, legal and advisory services. As of 1st January 2011, Mazars has its own offices in 61 countries, across five continents, with nearly 13,000 professionals. Through its correspondent agreements, joint ventures and representation offices, Mazars can operate in 21 additional countries and provide its clients with professional teams, who all share the same commitment to quality and a common determination to maintain the highest technical and ethical standards. Mazars’ always expanding portfolio of services reflects the Group’s ambition: to provide its clients, whether international corporates, SMEs or individuals, with tailored and global solutions to help them achieve sustainable growth.
