Previous Reference:           Minute 66 (2018/19)

The Director of Finance will submit Document “U” which reports on any significant issues arising from the audit work undertaken to date and the progress made up to 30 September 2019 against the Internal Audit Plan, which was approved by the Committee on 18 April 2019. In addition the report includes an update on progress made in implementing the recommendations of the external review of Internal Audit.

Recommended-

That the Committee:

(1)       Takes assurance from the results to date that show that the control environment, risk management and governance processes of the Council is effective.

(2)       Endorses the anticipated coverage and changes of Internal Audit work during the year.

(3)       Require Internal Audit to monitor the control environment, risk management and governance arrangements and continues to assess areas of control weakness and the ability of management to deliver improvements to the control environment when required.

                                                                        (Mark St Romaine – 01274 432888)

The Director of Finance submitted Document “U” which reported on any significant issues arising from the audit work undertaken to date and the progress made up to 30 September 2019 against the Internal Audit Plan, which was approved by the Committee on 18 April 2019. In addition the report included an update on progress made in implementing the recommendations of the external review of Internal Audit.

It was reported that:

·         The Internal Audit Plan for 2019/20 had 229 days (10%) more capacity than in 2018/19 (2505 days v 2276 days). The net increase is due to the full year effect of recruiting four Senior Auditors (3.35FTE) in August 2018, the reduction in working hours of one Senior Auditor effective from 1.4.19 (0.4FTE) and the transfer of one member of staff to Financial Services (1FTE).  Internal Audit was currently ready to advertise for an Internal Audit Graduate Trainee to support succession planning and future service delivery.

·         Currently, it was forecast that Internal Audit would achieve its target level of 90% completion of the audit plan by the end of the financial year.

·         The audit work had identified that 80% of controls examined were operating satisfactorily.  All concerns arising from the audit assignments resulted in an audit recommendation.  To date, as in 2018/19, 100% of our audit recommendations had been accepted by management.   

·         Under the revised method the level of implementation of recommendations would be followed up quarterly by the auditor making the recommendation.  Narrative to support the current status would be sought and wherever possible supporting evidence would be obtained.    Having the author of the report carrying out the follow up work would allow difficulties in implementation to be identified and discussed.

·         A report on the Direct Payments Improvement Plan was agreed by CMT on the 13^th November 2019. At the meeting the plan was approved which included case prioritisation based on the time since the last audit and the value of the weekly payment. Of the 86 high priority cases, 64 had so far been finished and the rest timetabled to be completed in the next two weeks. It was envisaged that it would take a year to address the backlog on the lower risk cases. It was agreed that Internal Audit would review the situation in six months to determine the level of progress and report back to CMT.

·         The Head of Internal Audit no longer had responsibility for Information Governance.

·         The Computer audit resourcing gap that has existed for two years had now been filled. Bradford Council was to enter into a 3 year contract with Salford Council for the provision of Computer Internal Audit services.  The contract would be for 60 days per annum over three years from 1/10/19 to 30/9/22.

·         The position of Internal Audit Graduate Trainee had been developed and was currently going through the official vacancy approval process.

·         Due to an increase in resources, additional audit work would be undertaken compared to previous years; Internal Audit was now more responsive to the needs of the authority.

Members stressed that issues relating to Direct payments had been on going for a considerable length of time and needed to be monitored carefully and regularly; a further report on Direct payments should be submitted to the Corporate Management Team and subsequently to this Committee.

Resolved-

That the Committee:

(1)       Takes assurance from the results to date that show that the control environment, risk management and governance processes of the Council are effective.

(2)       Endorses the anticipated coverage and changes of Internal Audit work during the year.

(3)       Require Internal Audit to monitor the control environment, risk management and governance arrangements and continues to assess areas of control weakness and the ability of management to deliver improvements to the control environment when required.

(4)       Requests that a progress report relating to Direct Payments be submitted to the Corporate Management Team in six months time and subsequently to this Committee to determine the level of progress being made.

Action:  Director of Finance