A Gateway review is a highly interactive, cooperative and confidential process involving the Gateway review team, the Senior Responsible Official (SRO) [4] and the Sponsoring Agency’s Project Team. It is neither an audit nor intended to be onerous for the Sponsoring Agency. The project can continue while the review is being conducted and the review should not require new documentation to be produced; it focuses on information already developed.
Gateway reviews are conducted by independent reviewers – people not associated with the project itself. Gateway reviewers are sourced from the public and private sectors and are selected for their skills and experience, not to represent their agency or firm. For high risk projects, the selection, engagement and funding of the review team is by Finance. For medium risk projects, the Review Team Leader will be selected, engaged and funded by Finance, but the remaining Team members (usually three) will be staff nominated from within the Sponsoring Agency who are not associated with the project.
As part of a Gateway review, the review team is provided access to relevant project documentation and to the stakeholders involved with and / or affected by the project. Stakeholders are encouraged to be as frank as possible in their discussions with the review team during the review in order to help the team gain an understanding of key issues or concerns.
There are three key stages in a Gateway review:
An Assessment Meeting between the Gateway Unit and the SRO and Project Manager for the project, to clarify the characteristics of the project, discuss the timing and logistics of the review and determine the skills requirements for potential reviewers. This meeting will generally take one hour.
A Planning Meeting between the assigned Gateway review team and the significant project personnel (including the SRO and the Project Manager) to clarify the project’s characteristics and the requirements for the review. Requirements include the documentation to be provided, people to be interviewed and logistics associated with the review. This meeting will generally take no more than half a day.
The Onsite Review Activity, which involves examination of critical documentation and interviews with key Project Team members and other project stakeholders on the Sponsoring Agency’s premises. Interviews will be carefully planned and scheduled to minimise the disruption to interviewees. The Onsite Review Activity typically takes four to five working days to complete. The Review Team Leader will brief the SRO on a daily basis regarding any findings to date. This briefing typically takes less than half an hour.
Gateway reviews should take approximately six weeks to complete from the Assessment Meeting to the conclusion of the Onsite Review Activity. To maximise the benefit attained from a Gateway review, the review activity should ideally take place four to six weeks prior to a major decision point to allow time to consider and implement recommendations emanating from the review.
Each Gateway review produces a short confidential report, which is provided to the Sponsoring Agency’s SRO. To enable the review team to produce a report which is of most use to the Sponsoring Agency, there needs to be a willingness by all parties to share information openly and honestly. The Gateway Unit works to ensure this through:
careful selection of review teams;
ongoing liaison with review teams and FMA agencies;
communication and dissemination of guidance material;
ongoing training for the Gateway Review Process; and
supporting the confidentiality of the process.
Communication with Sponsoring Agencies in the implementation of Gateway is a key focus for the Gateway Unit. That is why communication commences as early as possible in preparation for a review and continues through to the conclusion of the review. There will be a great deal of interaction between the Gateway Unit, the review teams and the FMA agencies participating in reviews.
Proactive involvement of the SRO is an essential element in a Gateway review. The SRO is important because they:
oversee preparations for a review and take responsibility for meeting the agency’s obligations;
are the focal point for the work undertaken by a review team;
own the review report and control its distribution;
decide what, if any, action should be taken in response to the review team’s recommendations; and
are in a position to influence the people associated with the project, to help lay the foundation for a productive interaction with the gateway review team.
The focus of the review team’s work is to provide a useful report to the SRO through the findings and recommendations they develop. Although they are providing a report to the SRO, the independence of the review is crucial to the success of Gateway. The review team is not working for the SRO, and the SRO can not dictate the way the review is conducted or what goes in to the report.