Issue - meetings

To consider the report of the Audit Managers.

The Audit Manager (HK) presented the Annual Internal Audit Report which conformed to the Public Sector Internal Audit Standards (PSAIS) to inform the Council’s Annual Governance Statement and included the quarterly update on the progress of Internal Audit work.

She discussed the work undertaken in the year and advised that the Audit and Governance Committee had approved a supplementary budget in December 2017, for additional staffing resources to deliver the approved audit plan. The existing team had worked additional hours between January and March 2018 to complete the audit plan within the approved supplementary budget.

Members were referred to the summary of work completed for quarter ended 31 March 2018 and were advised that of the 16 audit areas, 15 had been completed to a satisfactory level with only the external grants funding requiring significant improvement. The summary of investigations (Appendix C) showed the fraud reported to the Council during the year along with the outcome of subsequent investigations. 

The Audit Manager also provided a report on the Internal Audit Performance Management and Quality Assurance Improvement Program.

The Audit Manager reported that the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIPA), had not been used during 2017/18, but the Council had recently been inspected by a representative of the Investigatory Powers Commissioners Office (IPCO) to ensure that Council policies and procedures were in accordance with legislation.

The Chief Finance Officer would be presenting a report on the Councils Counter Fraud review to the Senior Management Board and a summary of the Counter Fraud report and ICPO inspection would be presented at the next Audit and Governance Committee in September.

In response to questions from Members, the Audit Manager (HK) responded:-

·         Housing Tenancy Subletting was a high risk area for many authorities, and for the case in question the information had been provided by Plymouth City Council who carry out RTB fraud investigations on the Council’s behalf. The value of the one case reported would be paid back to Exeter;

·         All fraud claims are investigated, however most cases were provided anonymously from the public, with little information to support the investigation;

·         The investigations summary report only showed the value of the cases identified as fraud to date, however further information had been provided by Capita  that showed forecast losses had the fraud continued;

·         The outcome of any Housing tenancy subletting investigation was an issue and was advertised where possible to discourage it. Cyber security was an ongoing risk that would always remain as high due to the ever changing nature of technology;

The Audit and Governance Committee noted the Annual Audit Report for the year ended 31 March 2018.