Agenda item

(Chief Internal Auditor) To consider the attached report (AGC-025-2013/14).

The Vice-Chairman relinquished control of the meeting to the Chairman, who apologised for his lateness.

The Chief Internal Auditor presented the Internal Audit Monitoring report for the third quarter of 2013/14, which provided a summary of the work undertaken by the Internal Audit Unit between October and December 2013. The report detailed the overall performance to date against the Audit Plan for 2013/14 and also enabled the Committee to monitor the progress of Priority 1 actions issued in previous reports.

The Chief Internal Auditor advised the Committee of the audit reports that had been issued during the period:

(a)        Full Assurance:

·                      Housing Contracts;

(b)        Substantial Assurance:

·                      Budgetary Control;

·                      Risk Management & Insurance;

·                      General Ledger;

·                      National Non Domestic Rates;

·                      Countrycare;

·                      Waste Management & Recycling;

·                      Recruitment & Selection;

·                      Commercial Property Portfolio;

·                      Fleet Operations Income; and

·                      Contracts / Procurement (Fraud Prevention & Detection);

(c)        Limited Assurance:

·                      None; and

(d)        No Assurance:

·                      None.

The Committee’s attention was drawn to the Outstanding Priority 1 Actions Status report, all of which would be reviewed in follow-up audits, and the Limited Assurance Audit Follow Up Status report. It was also noted that the Audit Plan for 2013/14 had been appended to allow the Committee to monitor progress against the Plan.

The Chief Internal Auditor reported upon the current status of the Internal Audit Unit’s Local Performance Indicators for 2013/14:

·                     % Planned Audits Completed             Target 90%     Actual 64%;

·                     % Chargeable Staff Time                   Target 72%     Actual 70%;

·                     Average Cost per Audit Day               Target £245     Actual £232; and

·                     % User Satisfaction                            Target 90%     Actual 90%.

There were two Outstanding Priority 1 Actions listed as at January 2014. The first concerned the full documenting of the Recruitment & Selection process and the second concerned the validation of rent review dates for the Council’s Commercial Property Portfolio. Both actions had not yet exceeded their target date.

The Vice-Chairman highlighted the recent improvement in the reducing number of Limited Assurance Audit reports being issued as well as the reduction in the number of outstanding Priority 1 Actions, and warned that, while this trend was to be welcomed, the Council should be careful not to get complacent. The Director of Finance & ICT acknowledged the recent improvement in performance but accepted that mistakes were still made on occasion which the audits tried to pick up. The wider improvements in performance were illustrated by the Council’s Key Performance Indicators, which were currently reviewed by both the Finance & Performance Management Cabinet Committee and Scrutiny Panel.

In response to questions from the Committee, the Chief Internal Auditor stated that aspects of the recent Directorate restructure would be considered when the Audit Plan for 2014/15 was being drawn up, and the amended Job Descriptions for Directors and Assistant Directors would be incorporated into a review of the Directorate Risk Registers. It was acknowledged that the “% of Planned Audits Completed” performance indicator would fall a little short of its 90% target and some low priority audits would be carried forward into 2014/15. However, there was no available budgetary resources for a contract Auditor to make up the shortfall in the Plan’s progress.

Resolved:

(1)        That the following issues arising from the Internal Audit Monitoring Report for the third quarter of 2013/14 be noted:

(a)        the Audit reports issued between October and December 2013 and significant findings therein;

(b)        the Priority 1 Actions Status Report;

(c)        the Limited Assurance Audit Follow-Up Status Report; and

(d)        the 2013/14 Audit Plan Status Report.