Issue - meetings

The Committee heard from John Sketchley, Audit Team Leader, regarding the 2019/20 quarter two audit report. He highlighted to Members the work that had been undertaken since the report was drafted. The Vulnerable Communities report had been at draft stage but was now at the final version; Key Controls – Financial Resilience was in the final stage and the Corporate Plan Delivery and the Golden Thread was substantially complete. It was explained that, at the time of writing the report, the work in progress had been slightly behind schedule however as a result of the work completed as detailed above, they were currently at a delivery rate of 48% against a target of 52%, which was an improved picture to that detailed in the report. The Audit Team Leader highlighted the other areas of interest in the report such as the outstanding recommended actions, both of a medium priority, and the overall view of this year’s audit plan. He confirmed that the plan would be completed within the year.

A Member of Committee enquired about the outstanding action points, in particular noting that there was one outstanding from November 2018. The Corporate Policy Manager explained that the action, regarding the Customer First strategy, had been given an original completion date of 31 March. It was acknowledged that, due to the involved nature of the Customer First work programmes, the original completion date had been overly ambitious. The Committee heard that each element of the strategy had a different lead and there had also been a change of sponsorship in the intervening period. The Corporate Policy Manager stated that sign off was due to happen by 31 October 2019 and the sponsorship sign off from the retired Executive Director of Operations / Head of Paid Service to the Executive Director of Resources / Head of Paid Service / S151 Officer would also be finalised at that point.

There was discussion around the length of time that was acceptable for an action to be outstanding. The Monitoring Officer explained there was no rule about it and acknowledged delays could be disappointing but the Committee received such details for the reason of monitoring actions and delays. He highlighted that for this action in particular, there had been more complications than anticipated but it was more important to do it right rather than do it quickly.

A Member of Committee acknowledged that there were fewer actions out of time than had previously been experienced but requested further updates on those actions. The Chairman suggested that where there were delays, greater detail could be included in the report in order to inform the Committee of current status. The Corporate Policy Manager highlighted that for the strand of work in question, there had been five recommendations in total with only the one outstanding. He highlighted that this demonstrated the work had been focussed on but acknowledged the deadline for that one outstanding action had likely been overly optimistic.

            RESOLVED to note the report.