Agenda item

To consider a report from the Acting Head of Internal Audit, copy attached as item 7.

Before the Committee was a report by the Acting Head of Internal Audit, copies of which had been circulated to all Members and copies are attached to the signed copy of these Minutes as Item 7.

The report asked Members to consider and approve the revised 2020/21 Internal Audit Plan.

A Member questioned whether the 10 days allocated for testing the IT Recovery Plan would be sufficient. Offices advised that the 10 days allocated would be sufficient time to conduct the audit and it was noted that ‘risks associated with hacking’ would be the subject of an audit in its own right. 

Members also discussed the resilience of systems to home working and the need for this to be included in the existing audit plan. Officers advised that these issues would be addressed as part of the Network and Architecture Resilience audit, outlined in Q4 of the 2019/20 internal audit plan, which had yet to be completed.  

The Committee considered a number of potential audit topics, including:-

• Joint working between Adur and Worthing Councils and West Sussex County Council; 
• Worthing Homes, resources allocated and the return on investment - it was suggested that this would not be a good use of the audit resources;
• A comparison study in relation to the outsourcing of Worthing Theatres - it was noted that ‘Theatres Contract Procurement’ was already in the audit plan.

A Member sought clarification as to whether the audit planned for street numbering and naming was required. Officers advised that this was a gold award winning service which had been considered to be low risk and had been removed (and not replaced) from the Internal Audit Plan. 

It was noted by the Committee that the Treasury Management (TM) audit had been removed from the Internal Audit Plan. Members sought clarification as to why this had been deemed to be only medium risk and why it had been removed from the plan. Officers advised that TM was generally audited every year, had a good track record and would still be audited by External Audit. It was also noted that it hadn’t been completely dropped by Internal Audit, they would still be looking at some key controls compliance.  

The Committee was notified that the audit work relating to the Covid 19 response and the procurement of Worthing Theatres would be conducted sooner rather than later as both were deemed to be high risk and high priority. 

The Chairman, Councillor Kevin Boram, proposed that the following additional audits be included in the Audit Plan for 2020/21:-

• procurement of the Worthing Theatres solution;
• audit of the Covid 19 response to consider the working relationship between A&W Councils and WSCC on this issue;
• use of the Councils budgets to support the delivery of homes in partnership with Registered Social Landlords (RSLs); and

suggested that the Joint Governance Committee recommend that the Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee considers the wider relationship between WSCC and A&W Councils.

The proposal was seconded by Councillor Beccy Cooper and unanimously supported. 

Resolved 

That the Joint Governance Committee:-

• considered the proposed plan for 2020/21 and identified the following additional audits to be included;
  • procurement of the Worthing Theatres solution;
  • audit of the Covid 19 response to consider the working relationship between A&W Councils and WSCC on this issue;
  • use of the Councils budgets to support the delivery of homes in partnership with Registered Social Landlords (RSLs);

• approved the 2020/21 Internal Audit Plan as amended above; and

• recommended that the Joint Overview & Scrutiny Committee considers the wider working relationship between West Sussex County Council and Adur & Worthing Councils.