Issue - meetings

To receive a report from the Internal Audit Team Leader updating the Committee on the work performed by Internal Audit for the 2015/16 financial year as required by the Public Sector Audit Standards.

The Committee had before it, and NOTED, a report from the Internal Audit Team Leader updating it on the work performed by Internal Audit during the 2015/16 financial year.

It was explained that with regard to overdue audit recommendations the position overall had improved tremendously. This time last year 46% of recommendations on ‘open’ audits were overdue compared to 25% this year. It was the opinion of the Internal Audit Team Leader that the Council’s control environment had been, on the whole, adequate and effective in the 2015/16 financial year. Throughout the year four audits had been identified as being poorly controlled but in each area progress had been made since the audit opinion had been issued.

Discussion took place with regard to:

·         The need for service managers to prioritise training plans as soon as possible.

·         What the main challenges were for internal audit. It was explained that certain situations were more challenging than others and an example was provided of a new manager with no handover period being one. Another was the area of Procurement which was described as being extremely complex and time consuming. A lot of different service managers needed to be trained to use the system.

·         The definition of an ‘adequate’ audit opinion, in some cases Members may not agree with this assessment. The Internal Audit Team Leader stated that it would be useful to have input from Committee Members when she presented her Audit Plan in January regarding this issue.

·         All service areas needed to be encouraged to return their surveys after an audit had been completed as they provided useful feedback to the Internal Audit Team.

In conclusion the Chairman thanked the Internal Audit Team for the work that they did. He was pleased to see the number of outstanding audit recommendations continuing to reduce as this was a particular area of focus for this Committee and it would continue to monitor the situation.

Note: * Report previously circulated; copy attached to the signed minutes.