Issue - meetings

(Chief Internal Auditor) To consider the attached report.

The Chief Internal Auditor, S Marsh, detailed the importance of this annual report which fed into the Annual Governance Statement and provided her opinion on the adequacy of internal controls for 2021/22. The report provided a summary of the work completed, the assurance required and detailed how the opinion had been recached. She stated her overall opinion was that the Council had adequate and effective governance, risk management arrangements and control processes, this was the highest opinion that could be given. She also advised the Committee that there had been no limited assurance reports in 2021/22, that the tracker process had worked well and there were no significant issues to report, there had been no special investigations, the external Quality Assessment confirmed that the service conformed to the Public Sector Internal Audit Standards.

The Committee asked if there were implication if recommendations in the tracker were not completed. S Marsh explained that timescales associated with recommendations were challenged and agreed and any overdue items were brought to the attention of the Committee.  If there were sound reasons to refresh the implementation date, the original date was maintained in the tracker.  This allowed service areas to be called to account.  She advised the Committee there were no concerns in relation to the recommendation tracker at this time.

The Committee received confirmation that there was no problem with staff numbers and resources, and that there had been a shift to work with services to facilitate solutions.

Resolved

The Committee:

1.      Noted the Annual Report of the Chief Internal Auditor for 2021/22 and the assurance level given, and

2.      Agreed that for the 12 months ended 31 March 2022, the Council had operated adequate and effective governance, risk management arrangements and control processes.