Agenda item

(To receive a report from Lucy Pledge, Audit and Risk Manager, which provides details of the audit work during the period 11 March to 12 June 2018, and advises on the progress with the 2018/19 plan)

Consideration was given to a report which provided the Committee with details of the audit work during the period 11 March – 12 June 2018 and advised on the progress with the 2018/19 plan.  It was reported that during this period 13 audits were completed, with four of them given limited assurance.  It was noted that the full executive summaries were attached as appendix 2 to the report, with the exception of payroll which was included as a separate agenda item.

Members were also advised that the two IMT reports had been issued without the actions agreed. However, it was reported that representation from IMT would be in attendance at the July meeting of the Audit Committee.

It was noted that actions had been agreed for completion in September, and it was proposed to ask those representatives to come to the meeting in September so they could update the Committee on actions which had been done rather than what was hoped to be done.

Members were provided with the opportunity to ask questions to the officers present in relation to the information contained within the report and some of the points raised during discussion included the following:

·         It was queried how things moved forward when there was a disagreement on the outcomes of an audit, and also what the role of the audit committee would be in this situation.  It was clarified that there was not a disagreement in relation to the findings, but it had not been possible to agree the actions.

·         It was commented that the management response to an audit provided the Committee with assurance that any issues were being managed.

·         In relation to the fuel cards, it was noted that an action plan had been agreed, and were being transferred from procurement to commissioning but without a contract in place.  It was noted that the risks were low, but there were still risks.

·         In relation to the two ICT audits, it was queried how the Committee could have any assurance that the audit was effective.  It was acknowledged that there had been some challenges in getting the response, but officers would keep chasing or bring it to the Audit Committee to make it more transparent.

·         It was noted that the manager responsible for the ICT audits had not been invited to attend this meeting as it was already scheduled for them to attend the next meeting in July.

·         Members expressed disappointment that a management response had not been received for the two ICT audits and felt that this suggested a disregard for the audit process and was preventing the audit committee doing its job.  The Audit and Risk Manager advised that the comments would be passed back to the appropriate officer.

·         It was commented that the role of the Audit Committee was to support the audit process and not being able to get a management response did not send the message that there were good interdepartmental relations.  It was acknowledged that a management response was needed to the IMT audits, but members were advised that there was currently very limited capacity within the team and recruitment was ongoing.  However, it was felt that even a limited response would have been preferable.

·         The role of the Audit Committee was to provide assurance to the Council that controls and processes were working, and the internal audit team made this possible.  However, if internal audit were unable to complete their reports due to a lack of response from managers, the Audit Committee should require those managers to attend the Committee.

·         In relation to fuel cards, it was commented that it was difficult to see what the problem was and that it was the responsibility of management to have oversight of the issues, and there was a definite need for the processes to be tightened up.

RESOLVED

1.    That the outcomes of Internal Audit's work be noted.

2.    That on those occasions were a management response was not received to an audit, the lead officer be required to attend the appropriate meeting of the Audit Committee to provide an update on progress.