Agenda item

(To receive a report which gives the Head of Internal Audit opinion on the adequacy of the Council's governance, risk and control environment and delivery of the Internal Audit Plan for 2015/16)

Consideration was given to a report which gave the Head of Internal Audit opinion on the adequacy of the Council's Governance, risk and control environment and delivery of the Internal Audit Plan for 2015/16.

It was reported that during 2015/16 there had been a number of areas where the need for improved compliance and strengthening of the control processes had been identified – most notably the Agresso system and the Council's IMT systems. 

Due to the negative impact these have had throughout the Council, it had been assessed that overall both the financial and internal control environment had deteriorated since the Head of Audit opinion given the previous year.  Therefore, both Internal and Financial control environment had been assessed as red/amber.  This showed inadequate performance, where urgent management action identified (in progress) on major governance issues or high risk in a key system/process area which had a negative impact throughout the Council

However, on a more positive note, it was reported that the Council's governance and risk framework had been assess as green/amber and was performing well with some improvements identified.

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:

·         98% of the revised plan had been delivered.  The changes to the plan had to be made due to a number of vacancies within the team and the amount of time it took to fill them.

·         It was noted that the audit on SEND transport had been moved to the current plan.

·         It was queried why South Holland District Council had terminated their use of the LCC audit services, and members were advised that there were complicated audit arrangements in place with South Holland, as they shared a senior management team with Breckland district council, and so in trying to streamline services, they agreed to used Breckland's audit services.  It was noted that it was a mutually agreed parting.

·         It was confirmed that the implementation of the Mosaic case management system was behind plan, but it was aimed to go live in October 2016.  There would be a meeting with programme managers in order to give assurance around Mosaic.

·         It was noted that although the recovered funds of £950 of the £97,380 lost through fraud cases was low, the fraud had been stopped therefore preventing further losses.  Members were disappointed that more funds had been recovered, but it was noted that this was due to the burden of proof, and there not being enough evidence for a criminal case.  However, the employees involved were dismissed.

·         Members were advised that an informal meeting of the Committee would take place on 4 August 2016 to allow the Committee to fully discuss the reports for the two audits which received low assurance.  It was noted that it was not appropriate to bring the reports to this meeting as they were not yet ready.  Relevant officers would also be available on this date to answer any queries from members. 

·         In relation to the delay in implementation of Mosaic, it was noted that the Director for Adult Care did not want this system to be rolled out until it could be properly supported by the IT systems.

·         It was queried whether IT resilience could be guaranteed as there were increasing numbers of staff who relied on IT to be able to perform their roles.

·         It was requested whether assurance could be given on the current status of the IT systems.

·         It was reported that the previous year had been particularly challenging for the service as two key staff had left and recruitment had taken longer than expected.  However, it was thought that there were sufficient resources to deliver the Audit Plan.

RESOLVED

1.    That the content of the Head of Internal Audit's Annual report be noted.

2.    That assurance be sought on the current status of the Council's IT systems.

3.    That the Audit Committee meet informally to consider the two reports which received low assurance.