Issue - meetings

To consider the 2020-21 Internal Audit and Investigation Report.

The Committee received the 20020-21 Annual Internal Audit and Investigation Report.

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

·       The original annual Audit and Investigation Plan had been agreed in February 2020 but due to the impact of the pandemic, the Committee had later agreed to an in year review of the Plan.  The revised Plan had been agreed in September 2020.

·       As part of the review, new audit priorities had been agreed and the team’s work had been refocused and reprioritised. 

·       The review had resulted in a number of audits being deferred.  However, Internal Audit work had been enhanced in other areas.  There had been a focus on areas that had previously attracted a Category 3 Internal Audit opinion, including Debtors, Housing Rents and Public Health.

·        A specific piece of work had been undertaken regarding risk management.  Work had also increased in areas where there had been increased expenditure due to Covid or where there had been the payment of Government grants which had had to be paid within tight timescales.

·       The Chief Audit Executive’s opinion was that the governance, risk management and internal control framework was substantially complete and effective, but that there were some areas where improvement was required.

·       Councillor Gee asked about conclusions reached with regards to the presentation of Treasury Management reports.  The Lead Specialist Audit and Investigation agreed to provide feed back.

·       Councillor Gee noted that Housing Rents had received a rating of 3 and had been rated 2 the previous year.  She questioned whether the same issues remained outstanding.  The Lead Specialist Audit and Investigation indicated that the 2020/21 audit had had a different and wider scope and because of the expanded scope and issues identified during this recent review, it had moved to a Category 3 opinion.

·       In response to a question from Councillor Loyes, the Lead Specialist Audit and Investigation indicated that there had been one audit that had been received a Category 1 opinion, the Payroll audit.

·       The Assistant Director Governance reminded the Committee of the improvement actions around rents in the Annual Governance Statement.

·       Councillor Ross commented that the work around the Covid grant fund was a good news story.  The Lead Specialist Audit and Investigation indicated that the team had worked closely with the Revenues team to put controls in place to aim to prevent/reduce fraud entering into the system.

·       It was noted that the table detailed in 4.2 needed to be updated to reflect the category 1 opinion given for the Payroll audit.

RESOLVED:  That the Committee note the report, the Shared Audit and Investigation Service activity for the financial year ended 31 March 2021, and progress in achieving the 2020/21 Internal Audit and Investigation Plan.