Issue - meetings

To receive a report regarding the Internal Audit of Council Tax Reduction Scheme.

The Committee considered the outcome of the internal audit of the Council Tax Reduction Scheme (CTRS).

The report stated that, following initial consideration of changes to the CTRS in January 2019, the Chairman had requested an Internal Audit review of the governance arrangements and processes for setting the CTRS for 2019/20.

Overall, the audit found that effective processes were in place for setting and improving the CTRS. However, controls that should have ensured the successful delivery of the scheme were impacted by a number of factors including instability in leadership with key Member and Officer posts being vacant, the major restructuring programme ongoing at that time and ineffective Member oversight and decision making. A number of areas were highlighted in order to strengthen controls and oversight of the process.

Based upon the review of controls in place relating to CTRS the report stated that the Audit opinion was that the controls were “substantially complete and effective” (the second highest of the four Audit opinions).

During the discussion of this item the following points were made:

·                Members felt that a more accurate Audit opinion should have been that the “range of Risk Mitigation Controls was incomplete and risks were not effectively mitigated”.

·                Would future Member oversight include a standing item on the Community and Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee? It was confirmed that the CTRS Audit Plan would be submitted to the Audit Committee and, at that point, the Committee could discuss the appropriate Member oversight arrangements.

RESOLVED That:

1)     the Internal Audit of the Council Tax Reduction Scheme be noted;

2)     a further update be submitted to the Committee at its meeting on 24 July 2019.