Issue - meetings

Report of the Head of Audit and Risk Management to inform the Committee of the work undertaken by the Internal Audit Service for the first quarter 2008/09 and reports outstanding from 2007/08.

The Head of Audit and Risk Management, Anne Woods, introduced this report, which was the first internal audit progress report in the new format agreed by the Committee in June 2008. In response to feedback from Committee members that they would prefer more detailed information on a more regular basis, summaries of all finalised internal audit reports were now circulated to members monthly, with reports where assurance was limited being brought to quarterly Committee meetings for consideration. By providing information on a more regular basis, members would have more time to raise any issues and ask questions about specific areas of the summarised reports in advance of the Committee meeting. Information on risk management and progress on implementing the Council’s updated risk management strategy would be reported quarterly.

Referring to the summary of the Parking Control and Enforcement audit report, Committee members asked when the Committee would have the opportunity to see what actions had been taken further to this report. It was reported that follow up to this report would be presented to the Committee in the next financial year, unless members requested an earlier report. Committee members confirmed that they would like to see a report on the follow up to this audit sooner.

The Chief Financial Officer confirmed that the Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officer were reviewing progress against outstanding Priority 1 recommendations on a monthly basis. The Committee asked how priority 2 and 3 recommendations were followed up, and Ms Woods reported that all recommendations would be followed up as part of the audit programme for the financial year following the year in which the report was completed. Details of the implementation of these was reported to the Committee as part of the quarterly progress report.

The Chair expressed the opinion that the summary of finalised audit reports should include all recommendations made and not just the priority 1 recommendations, in order for Committee members to have a more complete picture. The Chair also asked that the wording of the recommendation 2.3 be changed in future to include all the audit recommendations so that the Committee could consider whether further action was necessary to address all outstanding recommendations, not just priority 1.

On a motion by the Chair, it was:

RESOLVED

i)                    That the audit coverage and progress during the first quarter 2008/09 and reports outstanding from 2007/08 be noted, with direction to the officers to include the progress of all recommendations in the report.

ii)                  That the progress and responses received in respect of outstanding audit recommendations be noted.

iii)                That a follow up report on the audit of Parking Control and Enforcement be presented to the Committee within the financial year 2008/09.