Agenda item

Consideration was given to this report which presented to Members the Head of Internal Audit’s opinion on the adequacy of the Council’s governance, risk and control environment and the delivery of the Internal Audit Plan for 2016/17.

The report aimed to present a summary of the audit work undertaken over the past year. The overall adequacy of and effectiveness of the governance framework and internal control system, as well as the extent to which the Council can rely on it, was assessed. The report informed how the plan was discharged and shown the overall outcomes of the work undertaken. Attention was drawn to issues relevant to the Annual Governance Statement.

It showed that the internal audit service continued to work well with the Governance and Audit Committee and Management to help the council maintain effective governance, risk and control processes.

The Internal Auditor summarised the purpose of the Annual Internal Audit Report, which is to meet the Head of Internal Audit annual reporting requirements set out in the Public Sector Internal Audit Statement (PSIAS) and the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015.

It was highlighted that the content of the report informed the development of the Council’s Annual Governance Statement 2016/17.

The Internal Auditor had shown how standards were being adhered to and how opinions in the four areas listed at Figure 1 of the report - Governance, Risk, Internal Control and Financial Control - were captured and evidenced, highlighting a number of paragraphs – namely:

·   para 30 which talks about maintaining resilience and capacity and Information Governance,

·   para 33 relating to Restrictions on Scope/Changes to plan – showing a significant reduction of coverage by 20% and

·   para 35 which shows how the issues relating to s. 33 were addressed by working together with the Director of Resources, having scheduled all audits for 2017/18.

·   para 37 – showing that there has not been any impairment to the audit function,

·   para 43 – a ‘health check’ on the Council’s counter fraud arrangements showing that the Council has a ‘zero tolerance’ to fraud with strong policies in place; and

·   para 44 – showing how the Internal Audit’s performance is measured against a range of indicators.

The Internal Auditor advised that the outcome of the quality assurance was that the council was performing well overall but also mentioned a key improvement area around the delivery of the audit schedule and the clearance of reports which will continue to be worked on.

Debate ensued and Members commented that it was a positive report but warned against complacency.Members highlighted paragraph 25 which showed an instance where procurement processes had not been fully complied with in relation to the recruitment and contract management of a consultant. This was to be followed up in more depth in the internal audit plan for 2017/18 to ensure that the issue was not systematic but a one of error.

Questions were raised in relation to Appendix 2 - Outstanding Recommendations relating to ICT infrastructure. In responding, the Director of Resources assured Members that this was being looked at and the figure relating to the one outstanding item relating to ICT infrastructure should be down to zero by Christmas. The outstanding item related to ICT strategy which was being developed. It was further stated that the Council was quite well placed in comparison to many other authorities – including larger unitary authorities, in particular in the way we were approaching our digital strategy and ICT strategy and understanding the interdependency of the two.

Members questioned how wide the involvement of staff was during the annual survey in relation to Governance arrangements and how workloads, stress and resilience were being addressed. In responding, the Internal Auditor and the Business Improvement and Corporate Governance Team Manager advised on methods used for the assessments highlighting the CIPFA document and the Quality Assurance Framework diagram. It was confirmed that feedback was sought from both staff and management. The Internal Auditor further advised that in relation to resilience, the annual staff survey highlighted the need for management development – balancing operational delivery with management responsibilities. Officers also advised that resilience and capacity would be appearing on the Action Plan this year to ensure improvements.

In light of the comments expressed during the debate it was: -

RESOLVED that

(a)the contents of the report be received and noted and no further action be taken at this time, and

(b) the Annual Report be further considered when scrutinising the a

Annual Governance Statement.