Agenda item

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

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 6.

The report sought to update Members of the Committee with:-

·         the current performance of the Internal Audit Section;

·         summary information on the key issues raised in final audit reports issued since their last report to the Committee; and

·         the current status on the implementation of agreed audit recommendations.

Dave Phillips, the Acting Head of Internal Audit (AHIA), began by referring Members to 4.2 of the report, Final Audit Reports, and drew their attention to the fact that twelve reports had been finalised since the committee meeting was held in March 2019.  He referred to the paragraph headed Follow-up of Audit Recommendations, which he advised were supported by appendices at the end of the report. 

Before concluding, he mentioned a typographical error within the table headed Status of Recommendations 2016/17 i.e. Priority 2 (P2) - ‘Overdue’ should read 0 and not 2.  The AHIA stated he was happy to answer any queries raised by Members on the report.

The Chair referred to the table on page 7, Status of recommendations 2016/17 and queried whether Members should be concerned there were still 16 P2s outstanding, and also the outstanding P1s within 2017/18 and 2018/19.  The AHIA specifically referred to Local Land Charges and Invest to Save Schemes which he felt needed to be progressed.  With regard to Local Land Charges, an audit was scheduled for Q3 and on the Invest to Save Schemes, Audit had been promised an update very shortly.

As the AHIA was unable to provide further information on the outstanding P1s, the Chair, on behalf of the Committee, requested a further report be circulated to the Committee and Officers advising what they were, and whether there were risks involved.  In the meantime, to assist, the AHIA referred Members to Appendix 6 of the report which provided some further information on the outstanding P1s.

The Chief Financial Officer agreed the next time the monitoring report was produced a column be added to highlight the governance risk to Council.

The Committee Members raised a number of issues, particularly on:-

·         the consistently outstanding P1s;

·         the ‘Comment’ section of monitoring report being expanded;

·         the Leaseholder Service Charges draft Policy; and

·         relevant Officers’ attendance at future Joint Governance Committee meetings.

Following discussion, the Chair agreed that the more detailed Auditors’ report on the outstanding P1s should be circulated to Committee Members by the Chairs two weeks in advance of committee meetings.  This would enable Members sufficient time to identify significant matters of concern and potential high risk, and where  appropriate, invite the responsible Officers to attend to provide further clarification.

Resolved

That the Joint Governance Committee had considered and noted the contents of the report and agreed the circulation of the more detailed Auditors’ report by the Chairs to the Committee Members two weeks in advance of a committee meeting.