A leading Australian superannuation fund was several years into a multi-phase program when it stalled — materially over budget and behind schedule. The sponsor commissioned an independent six-week review to understand what had gone wrong and what it would take to recover. Desda was engaged to conduct that audit, assess the programs governance and delivery posture, and produce a clear, actionable set of findings.
The steerco endorsed every recommendation. And then they asked the Desda consultant to stay — to lead the remaining program scope to completion. What had been projected as a nine-month program was delivered in six, transitioning a $50 billion securities-lending book onto the fund's investment platform with steerco stakeholders faith restored in the program and transition to business as usual.
The Challenge
The program had accumulated significant cost and schedule overruns across multiple phases, breakdown in vendor relations resulting in loss of key persons. By the time Desda was engaged, confidence at steerco level had eroded and the path to delivery was unclear. The root issues were structural: governance had not kept pace with program complexity, risk controls were inconsistent, and the delivery team lacked the independent oversight and domain expertise needed to course-correct.
The audit scope was deliberately constrained — six weeks, independent, with a mandate to produce findings the steerco could act on. That constraint required sharp prioritisation: surface the failure modes that mattered, assess whether the remaining scope was achievable within the existing budget and timeframes and make a clear recommendation about whether and how to proceed.
- Program governance — structure, accountability, escalation paths
- Delivery performance — schedule, cost, resource and scope management
- Risk and issue controls — identification, rating, and ownership
- Vendor and stakeholder management — alignment and dependency tracking
- Status reporting — quality, frequency and accuracy
- Remaining scope — feasibility within the available budget and timeline
The Approach
Desda conducted the audit in two phases: a structured discovery phase drawing on program documentation, status reports, and stakeholder interviews; followed by a findings synthesis phase producing a prioritised set of recommendations with clear ownership and timeframes.
The Outcome
The audit findings gave the steerco what they needed: an honest, independent view of why the program had stalled and a credible path to recovery. Every recommendation was endorsed, and the fund committed to the revised delivery approach.
Under Desda's program leadership, the revised scope was delivered in six months — compressing what had been projected as a nine-month work plan. The $50 billion securities-lending book was successfully transitioned onto the investment platform on schedule and within the revised budget envelope.
- Independent audit completed in six weeks with full steerco endorsement
- All program governance recommendations implemented
- Nine-month remaining scope delivered in six months
- $50B+ securities-lending book transitioned to target investment platform
- Program closed within the revised budget envelope
Why Desda
Recovering a stalled program demands a specific combination of skills that is rarely found in a single team: the independence to deliver an honest audit, the domain depth to understand what the findings mean in practice, and the delivery capability to lead the recovery once the path is clear. Desda brought all three.
- Deep superannuation investment operations and platform expertise
- Independent audit capability with steerco-level credibility
- Hands-on program recovery and delivery leadership
- Track record on high-stakes, fixed-budget engagements across the Australian superannuation sector