Agenda item

The Committee received a report which informed Members of the overall adequacy and effectiveness of the system of internal control and risk management operating in 2018/19 and presented a summary of the audit work undertaken. The report was introduced by Minesh Jani, Head of Audit and Risk Management as set out in the agenda pack. The following was noted in discussion of the report.

a.    The Committee sought clarification around the Council’s response to the DfE consultation proposal for a three year audit cycle for schools. In response, officers advised that a three year risk cycle wasn’t unreasonable but the consultation response had set out that the government also needed to provide the resources to schools in order to undertake the audits.

b.    The Committee sought clarification around what was meant by audit consultancy. Officers advised that consultancy audits were advisory pieces of work undertaken by Internal Audit, in support of projects such as the FOBO programme.

c.    The Committee expressed concerns about audits being undertaken without the relevant Cabinet Member being informed and highlighted the audit of the Facilities Management contract being undertaken at the same time as APSE were undertaking something similar, as an example. In response, officers advised that the Audit Plan was agreed by the Committee at the start of year and the addition of the FM contract audit was requested subsequent to this. The Head of Audit and Risk Management set out that the APSE work undertaken was advisory.

d.    The Committee set out that further consideration needed to be given about the role of Audit in monitoring contract management. Officers acknowledged concerns about how best to manage this and advised that general contract management was on the audit plan for the current year.

e.    The Committee requested that the relevant Cabinet Member and the Cabinet Member with responsibility for insourcing be sent a copy of the audit report as a matter of course. The Chair queried whether this could be extended to notifying all Members, once an audit was completed. The Head of Audit and Risk Management agreed to give some further consideration as to how best this might be achieved, given the volume of audit reports produced each year. (Action: Minesh Jani).

f.     The Committee requested that the Head of Audit and Risk Management try to speed up the audit of the highways contract given that the retendering process was effectively in limbo. (Action: Minesh Jani).

g.    The Committee sought assurances about investigations into employee fraud for contractors, the role of Audit in this and what level of assurance was sought. In response, officers advised that the Anti-Fraud and Corruption Strategy set out that the level of assurance required was exactly the same as for employees who were employed directly by the Council. This was agreed as part of the contract specification process.

*Clerks note: 21:50 - The Committee agreed to suspend Committee Standing Orders in order to allow the meeting to centime beyond 22:00.*

RESOLVED

That the Corporate Committee noted the content of the Head of Audit and Risk Management’s annual report and assurance statement for 2018/19.