Issue - meetings

To advise the Committee of the work undertaken during the fourth quarter by the Internal Audit Service in completing the 2011/12 annual audit plan and reports issued for outstanding 2010/11 audits, together with the responsive and housing benefit fraud investigation work, and to provide details of the work undertaken by Council’s Human Resources business unit in supporting disciplinary action taken across all departments by respective Council Officers.

The committee received information on the internal audits completed in the third quarter of the current financial year together with information on the Council’s fraud investigation work, housing benefit fraud investigations and progress on the Council’s disciplinary actions. The committee were advised that, to date, 77 out of 95 audits had been completed by Deloitte and Touche. Following successful fraud investigations 11 Haringey council properties had been retrieved including 2 fraudulent tenancy succession claims. The committee further noted that the housing benefit reclaims team had exceeded their target for this year and that the council wide disciplinary statistic showed the lowest average of days for suspensions(less than 2 months per case). 

 Recommendations outstanding from audits undertaken in 2010/11 were considered and the committee noted that those relating to accounts receivable and health and safety had been negotiated and revised deadlines set for completion. The recommendations concerning Treasury Management had been implemented.  The committee were concerned that the actions relating to the monitoring of certificates of lawfulness had not been completed and wanted an understanding of when the original recommendation had been made to understand how long the delay had been.  The Head of Audit and Risk management agreed to provide this information to the committee along with an indication of when the recommendation was likely to be completed by the service in question.

Members were reminded that a summary of audits completed by Deloitte and Touché were emailed to members on a monthly basis .In keeping with their Corporate Committee responsibilities they were able to request full reports from considering these summaries.  The Head of Audit and Risk management agreed to forward members a copy of the audit report into certificates of lawfulness.

The committee noted that if an employee had resigned due to proven fraudulent financial activities they would still be pursued by the council   to repay in full any funds owed to the council.

RESOLVED

1. That the audit coverage and counter-fraud work completed during the fourth quarter, 2011/12, be noted.

2. That the management responses received for those audit recommendations not fully implemented be noted. That the manager’s actions taken during the third quarter to address the outstanding recommendations be deemed appropriate.