Issue - meetings

Report of the Head of Audit and Risk Management to:

i)                    Inform the Audit Committee of the requirements of the statutory Annual Governance Statement (AGS) and provide a draft statement relating to 2008/09 for review and approval

ii)                  Inform the Audit Committee of the supporting information used to produce the draft AGS and provide a copy of the management assurance and self assessment statement, which will be completed and submitted by Directors and ACEs, for information.

The Head of Audit and Risk Management, Anne Woods, presented the report on the draft Annual Governance Statement (AGS) for 2008/09. The Committee was advised that it was a statutory requirement for the AGS to be published as part of the Council’s statement of accounts and that it was the responsibility of the Audit Committee to review the draft document. Ms Woods reported on the way in which the AGS had been compiled by a core group of key officers and on the format of the AGS, which was prescribed by CIPFA. The Committee was advised that key changes in 2008/09 were the introduction of a local code of corporate governance and the implementation of recommendations from the previous year’s AGS. Actions required to address any gaps in assurance or evidence were detailed in the matrix of supporting evidence appended to the report, as well as in the more detailed AGS action plan and other external action plans. Progress against all the action plans would be reported to the Audit Committee on a regular basis.

Committee members expressed concern that the evidence required under the CIPFA guidance was documentary in nature, and did not include information on how procedures were implemented in practice. Whistle-blowing was raised as an example of an area where policy was in place, but the report did not clearly demonstrate that this had been acted on and the Committee emphasised that it was essential to have greater information on how policies such as this were used in practice. Ms Woods reported that the in the previous year the external auditors had looked at the extent to which the documentary evidence could be relied upon for assurance and that, where it was found that there was a risk of policies not being followed, this was addressed by an action plan. It was also reported that the local code of corporate governance had been developed as a way of drawing together all the existing policies, in line with CIPFA and SOLACE guidance. 

Concern was expressed that the draft AGS did not fully reflect the position relating to internal control procedures in the course of the previous year, and suggested that as a result of the significant events of the year, further work on self-assessment and checking was necessary. Ms Woods reported that risk and data quality, which were key areas in this regard, were covered in both the internal and external audit plans for the forthcoming year. Committee members expressed particular concern regarding the wording under paragraph 4.7 of the draft AGS that “no significant issues were identified during 2008/09 by the Audit Committee”. On this point, the Chair commented with example that the wordings were not correct. Following clarification by Ms Woods that this referred specifically to the work programme of the Audit Committee, it was agreed that this wording be amended.

The Chair advised the Committee that he had requested from officers that additional reports on non-financial activities be reported to the Audit Committee to ensure  ...  view the full minutes text for item 97