Agenda item

Internal Audit Progress Report

To consider the report for the 2nd Quarter 1st July to 30th September 2019 of the Audit Managers.

 

Minutes:

The Audit Manager (HK) presented the report which detailed the internal audit work carried out during the period 1 July to 30 September 2019 and the overall progress on the Audit Plan.  She referred to the previous reports on the agenda and stated that the delay in the approval of the audit would ultimately have an impact on the Audit Plan.  The Audit Managers would continue to monitor and work on the Plan and a report would be made to the Audit and Governance Committee meeting in March 2020.

Members were referred to Appendix A, which detailed the progress of the 2019/20 Audit Plan to date. The Audit Manager commented on the progress of outstanding actions completed and noted that there was only one area that had been identified as high risk. Following further advice from the City Council’s legal and finance teams, the required returns for the Lord Mayoralty’s civic functions were now submitted to the Charity Commission and the matter was now resolved. It was also reported that there had been no instances where remedial action was not agreed by management this quarter. There were no significant amendments that were required to be reported to this Committee.

The Audit Manager also referred Members to the Action Plan, presented in Appendix B, which highlighted the proposed measures to monitor and improve governance arrangements at the City Council. Although two outstanding issues were identified these were not deemed significant in nature.

In response to Members’ questions, the Audit Manager explained that following an audit, reasons were always given for any action to be taken and a follow up was always coordinated as well as an agreement of target dates with management.

The Audit Manager invited Members to suggest further areas for inclusion in the forthcoming Action Plan.  Any requests would be consulted upon with the Strategic Management Board in January. 

Members made the following suggestions:-

·         following a complaint and petition regarding a ward boundary issue, an audit to explore the accuracy of the digitised boundary register as well as consideration of the procedure for dealing with boundary disputes.

·         monitoring of the local authority carbon footprint common carbon metric. The Chief Finance Officer stated that it may be appropriate to set out when the road map was in place. Exeter University and neighbouring district authorities would then have an understanding of what was needed to deliver and then put the process in place.

·         an audit of the kitchen and bathroom replacement programme, to include how tenants were appraised of the programme. The Audit Manager updated Members and stated that the newly formed Procurement Team were in the process of retendering the contract, and so the Audit Action Plan would also look at the way that contracts were managed.

 

A Member suggested that such matters could also be considered by the Customer Focus Scrutiny Committee.  The Chief Finance Officer stated that he would pass on any areas of interest for further report to colleagues. Certainly, the request for an audit on the replacement kitchen and bathroom programme would ensure there was a test of the procurement to ensure that adequate controls were in place.

The Audit and Governance Committee noted the Internal Audit report for the second quarter of 2019.

 

 

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