Agenda item

The Committee received a cover report along with the Annual Internal Audit Plan and Strategy 2021/22 and the Internal Audit Charter, for the Committee’s approval. The report and Internal Audit Plan, Strategy & Charter were introduced by Minesh Jani, Head of Audit and Risk Management as set out in the agenda pack at pages 103-124. The following arose during the discussion of this agenda item:

1. The Chair commented that although the Audit plan was a management tool used to identify areas of weakness in the organisations’ governance structures, there was a limited capacity for Members to influence the contents of this plans and that Members should feel able to suggest areas for inclusion.
2. The Committee sought assurances around an audit of early years commissioning, that had been discussed at an earlier meeting, given the complexity of arrangements and the risks to provision in this area. In response, officers advised that the audit was already underway as part of the current year’s audit plan and that an audit report would be brought to the July Corporate Committee. (Action: Minesh).
3. In response to a question around areas of overlap in Scrutiny and the audit functions and how these could be support each other, officers advised that there was a clear distinction in the roles of scrutiny and audit. Audit looked at processes and whether those processes have adequately  mitigated the risk involved but did not interfere with the decisions made by the executive. Whereas scrutiny examined areas of policy and the decisions that are made.
4. The Committee sought assurances around how audits were prioritised and what the process was for determining which order they were carried out in. In response, officers advised that the audit plan in front of members was the prioritised list for audits and the next stage was to plan those audits in over the next four quarters of the year. In carrying out the audit work officers had to have some recognition for what was happening in those services on the ground and to prioritise with this consideration in mind.
5. The Chair requested that in relation to the phasing of audit work, that the plan should also include the terms of reference for each of the audits being undertaken. In response, the Head of Audit and Risk Management advised that he would circulate details of when audits would be taken forward in the plan but cautioned that the auditors had to carry out their work with regard to the public sector duties on audit standards, which included objectivity and independence as a key component. The Committee was advised that it was important that Members should not be determining what the auditors should be looking at within individual auditable areas as this should be free from political influence. The Chair acknowledged these concerns but also highlighted the need for transparency.
6. The Committee questioned how long services were afforded to implement changes in response to audits. In response, officers advise that this was based on the nature of the recommendations and the priority of the recommendations. Higher Priority recommendations should be actioned sooner due to the inherent risk. In practice, a reasonable timescale was agreed with management based on the above two factors.
7. In relation to a question around what happened to items on the plan that were not completed by year end, officers acknowledge that there would be some items that were not completed by year end due to the auditors starting late. Officers would bring a report to the July committee that set out the annual statement of audits. (Action: Minesh Jani).
8. The Committee queried whether the audit of performance management would be looking at performance across whole organisation, including senior officers. Officers responded that the audit was planned in recognition that Covid was likely to have a significant impact upon what was delivered and how it was delivered. The aim of the audit was to look at the new basket of performance indicators to make sure the organisation was set up to achieve what we it wanted to achieve and that these indicators were properly captured.
9. In summary, the Chair noted that a detailed update of the audit plan with phasing would be circulated to the Committee in due course and that he would like a further discussion to take place around scope of audits.

RESOLVED

That the Corporate Committee reviewed and approved the updated Annual

Internal Audit Strategy and Plan for 2021/22, attached at Appendix A of the report and the Internal Audit Charter, attached at Appendix B.