Agenda item

Reporting Persons – Graeme Clarke and Juan Fosco, Internal Audit

Juan Fosco, Assistant Manager of Internal Audit, introduced the report on the internal audit performance and activity from 23 July to 04 September 2020. 

The Internal Audit plan agreed by the Committee in March had been revisited in consultation with the Council’s Corporate Management Group due to the Covid-19 pandemic.  An additional review was added related to the Council’s performance during the pandemic with regard to lessons learnt during the period.  Due to the increased pressures and workloads it had been felt that a number of Audits could be deferred to begin in July 2020.  Accordingly around 20% of the Plan had been started by 1 September, with all Quarter 2 reports expected to be completed by the end of October.  The support received by the teams within the Council was noted to have been very positive and had enabled the delivery of the plan to be progressed.

A total of three final and two draft Internal Audit reports had been issued during the period, two of which received a limited assurance opinion, with seven high priority recommendations raised.  The summary reports were available through the Members’ Ipads.  The new action management system had been populated with 2018/19 and 2019/20 recommendations and was being updated as new reports were published.  An extract would be included in future Internal Audit progress reports.  There remained two outstanding high priority recommendations which related to counter fraud, with a Risk Assessment and Counter Fraud Strategy to be developed which would assist going forward.

Leigh Clarke, Finance Director, stated that CMG had revisited the management responses to the Off-Payroll Engagement report and agreed that some of the responsibilities given to Managers would be reviewed.

In relation to the Audit of Managing Agents (Health and Safety), the Chairman suggested that an update should be given in Quarter 4 of 2020 due to the responses to the audit recommendations requiring recruitment to a staff post.  Given the importance of Health and Safety, CMG would receive a further report towards the end of this year which would also be received by the Committee at its meeting in March 2021.  In addition, Managing Agents compliance should form part of the Annual Health and Safety Report received by the Committee each July.

Regarding the level of Health and Safety staff mandatory training courses being completed by staff, the Committee was advised that the number of courses had reduced and each member of CMG would deal with any remaining issues in their areas, with the aim of most being completed by the end of this calendar year.  CMG would review the situation at one of its weekly meetings in November. 

At the last meeting it had also been noted that a number of Risk Assessments had not been filed in the correct area on Sharepoint.  The matter had been referred to CMG and each member was ensuring that Assessments within their area had been filed correctly.  The latest update was that Building Services and Parking Services had moved their Assessments into the correct library on Sharepoint.

RESOLVED

That the report be received and progress against the 2020-21 Internal Audit Plan and implementation of Internal Audit recommendations be noted.