Issue - meetings

To consider the report of the External Auditor (Grant Thornton).

The Director, Public Sector Audit of Grant Thornton presented the Auditor’s Annual Report on Exeter City Council 2023/24 making the following points:

• that there were three key areas, being Financial Sustainability, Governance and Improving economy, efficiency and effectiveness as set out on page 56 of the agenda pack;
• there were no significant weaknesses in arrangements to ensure the Council managed risk to its financial sustainability;
• there were significant weaknesses in Governance with ECL and contract monitoring identified;
• there was a significant weakness in Improving economy, efficiency and effectiveness but that work had begun on this;
• the key recommendations could be seen on pages 58 to 60, 2 of which had been reported in previous years;
• with regards to recommendation 4, there was evidence that discussion had taken place but were not reflected in the final contract;
• recommendation 5 was in reference to procurement issues where payments has been made but a contract was not in place; and
• there was an improvement recommendation on page 82 in relation to the level of savings and the management comment regarding risk to services could also be seen.

The Strategic Director for Corporate Resources spoke on the report making the following points:

• counter-fraud would be handled by SWAP and this had begun on 1 April 2024;
• counter-fraud information could now be found on the website but SWAP collect statistics, monitor and investigate;
• the issue had been that the outsourcing of audit had taken place with no lead immediately identified within the Council for counter-fraud;
• the Head of Service, Finance was now the lead for counter-fraud strategy, coordinating and communicating any responses as required which would be reflected in the next audit plan; and
• there was a procurement waivers report in the Scrutiny Bulletin but this would in future be presented to the Audit and Governance Committee.

The Strategic Director for Corporate Resources and the Director, Public Sector Audit, of Grant Thornton responded to Members’ questions in the following terms:

• the counter-fraud strategy was up to date and would be reviewed every two years although this may be undertaken sooner to reflect the changes within SWAP;
• the constitution review would include looking at independent people on Audit and Governance Committee;
• partnerships were not defined in audit terms but would be expected to include but not be limited to group companies, other Local Authorities, the NHS and Sport England;
• audit would only look at partnerships should they be challenged and look to test whether the Council could explain them;
• a procurement report would now be presented to the Audit and Governance committee; and
• arrangements would be made and training given.

The Audit and Governance Committee noted the Auditor’s Annual Report 2023/24 following a unanimous vote.