Agenda item

To consider a report by the Acting Head of Internal Audit, copy attached as item 6.

Before the Committee was an update report from 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 6.

The report provided the quarterly report on Internal Audit progress and key findings to the Committee. The report also provided an update on fraud work conducted by the Councils’ Corporate Investigations Team.

The Acting Head of Internal Audit advised the Committee that the Head of Planning & Development and the Head of Major Projects & Investment had been unable to attend the meeting as it clashed with the Major Projects Board.

A question was asked regarding the GDPR & Data Privacy - Development Management Internal Audit, for which a limited assurance had been given. The Committee was advised that if all recommendations were implemented then it should stand the team in good stead and there should be no further issues. It was also noted that the audit had been requested by the team and was a highly technical review. As a result, there were a number of detailed recommendations. Officers advised that there were no priority 1 recommendations and that the limited assurance was due to the number of priority 2 recommendations, although none of the issues identified had been significant. These would be followed up in the usual way with the Committee being updated on their implementation. The Director for Digital, Sustainability & Resources advised that 2 recommendations regarding privacy notices had already been implemented, a further 8 had a due date of February 2022 and another in April 2022. He was confident that the work was in hand and he gave an assurance that he would be tracking the delivery of that work.

A question was asked regarding the implementation of recommendations as it appeared that this was not being achieved within the deadlines set. The Committee needed to know when priority 1 recommendations were going to be implemented, given the seriousness of some of the issues identified. Officers advised that the Corporate Leadership Team (CLT) had received a report which had highlighted problems with the reporting cycle rather than with the substantive work being undertaken. A comprehensive list of updates had been compiled and would be shared with the Acting Head of Internal Audit. In summary, Officers had been pleased to see the amount of progress with priority 1 recommendations and apologised for this information not feeding through into the report. Most had now been addressed and this would feed into the next iteration of the report. The Acting Head of Internal Audit confirmed that he shared Members' concerns, which is why these issues had been raised with CLT. The report was perhaps a bit too soon to reflect the updates and this was therefore likely to feed through future reports instead.  

The Committee highlighted that 1 or 2 very serious priority 1 recommendations, in relation to asbestos and legionnaires disease, had been outstanding for a number of years. Officers advised that the asbestos work had been commissioned to external contractors who were undertaking a gap analysis of both properties and garages. The contractors would then procure a separate contractor to carry out all of the remedial works. The Council’s T100 IT system would enable progress to be monitored and recorded, so although not completed, there was a process underway.    

It was noted that a Housing Transformation Programme had been commissioned by the Chief Executive, led by a very experienced transformation officer tasked with bringing together the resources to deliver the required changes and improvements at pace. The work was going well and progress with the P1 recommendations was reflected and included in the programme. There was recognition of the need for additional resources to make sure that the work was undertaken and this would feed through the audit recommendations before the Committee.   

The Committee acknowledged that the update and report had been out of kilter whilst stating that future reports needed to contain up to date information.

Resolved

That the Joint Governance Committee noted the contents of the report.