Issue - meetings

To receive a report from the Deputy Head of the Devon Audit Partnership monitoring the progress and performance of Internal Audit.

The Committee had before it, and NOTED, a report * from the Deputy Head of the Devon Audit Partnership monitoring the progress and performance of Internal Audit.

The following was highlighted within the report:

·         The internal control framework could not possibly mitigate risk for everything the Council undertook but it should be able to provide significant assurance that satisfactory arrangements were in place.

·         There were some areas of commonality in terms of audit results. For example, reconciliation of control accounts, completeness of processing and accuracy or error had received comment in some areas in the last progress report and were evident again in the recent reports on income, payroll and alarm care. However, no material issues had been identified to date.

Discussion took place with regard to:

·         The Electoral Services internal audit which had achieved a ‘high standard’ assurance opinion. The Committee wished for their thanks and gratitude to be conveyed back to the Electoral Services team.

·         The control framework within the Payroll area was working well.

·         The Progres Report Appendix 1 was still showing 6 medium outstanding recommendations from 2015, 4 of which were coloured red. The Chairman stated that if these were no longer applicable they should be removed from the list. If they were still applicable they should be resolved as soon as possible. The Director of Finance, Assets & Resources stated that he would bring a full update on the position regarding outstanding recommendations to the next meeting.

·         Issues in relation to Planning Enforcement had been due to staffing issues and the need for a new framework of controls to address previous problems. The Cabinet had also very recently discussed the Local Enforcement Plan which had had an impact. Arrangements to address this were in hand and the Leadership Team would be monitoring the situation.

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