Agenda item
Internal Audit 2019/20 Progress
To consider progress against the Internal Audit Plan for the 2nd year half.
Minutes:
The
Committee received the South West Audit Partnership (SWAP) Report of Internal
Audit Activity – Plan Progress report for 2019/20. This update report covered the quarter 3 information
that was due to be discussed at the March meeting and had been updated to cover
the period up to the end of the financial year.
SWAP’S ongoing audit opinion within this report was limited to 31 March
2020 and whilst SWAP would normally provide a quarter 1 update at this time,
due to the unprecedented circumstances day to day activity around audit
assurance work was only just being resumed.
Members noted that SWAP’s opinion for 2019-20 would be based on almost a
whole year’s work and would be provided to the committee in the annual report
in September, however the annual opinion for 2020-21 would not be based on a
whole year’s assurance work.
The
Chairman thanked SWAP and the rest of the team for all their support during the
pandemic, stepping away from their usual audit work to assist the Council in
responding to the pandemic.
The
Vice-Chairman highlighted the area of Pupil Premium Plus. He noted that a lot had happened since April. Whilst he felt reassured that steps had been
taken to address the particular concern that had been identified
it was not clear to him if controls had been put in place to stop it happening
again and this should be a serious concern to all. The Assistant Director, SWAP
assured members that this would continue to be followed up and that the
recommendations were being taken forward.
He undertook to bring an update for members to the September meeting.
In
respect of Whistleblowing, the Service Manager for Assurance advised that an
action plan was now in place to move forward the recommendations. The key outstanding areas related to
communications of the fraud related policies and this was in the process of
being addressed. It was proposed that an
Annual Report of Fraud and Whistleblowing should be presented to the September
meeting, and that this would incorporate an update on outstanding actions.
Following
a question from a member about the Purbeck bank reconciliations the Corporate
Director for Finance and Commercial explained to members the issues arose due
to LGR and staff handover issues but that the bank reconciliation process was
now up to date. The external auditors
were now undertaking their annual audit and there was a plan to switch off the
old legacy systems shortly.
The
representative from Deloitte advised members that as part of their work they
would look at suspense accounts and the process of reconciliations and year end
work.
In
a response to a request for assurance around the bank reconciliations for the
former district council, the Executive Director for Corporate Development
advised that Purbeck District council had ceased to exist and that the accounts
were closed last year and the external audit
identified no issues. The Assistant Director, SWAP added that he was happy to
work alongside Deloitte and/or the Corporate Director for Finance and
Commercial to provide an internal audit follow up on this to provide the
necessary assurance that these areas had been addressed.
In
respect of the deferred audit of Achievements of Savings Plans, the Executive
Director Corporate Development advised that due to the pandemic implementation
of previous transformation plans had been postponed. However, in the light of the pandemic there
was a real need to review the financial situation, identifying new savings
targets and plans, the scale of which was not yet known. The Executive Director indicated that an
audit review of the implementation of these savings plans would be welcome in
the 2020-21 financial year.
One
member asked what the effect of the pandemic had been on internal controls and
the segregation of duties. The Executive
Director advised that the current arrangements was
that around 2,500 members of staff were working at home across the whole
organisation but confirmed that finance staff were able to continue to
undertake their duties including the payment of business grants effectively.
Officers were confident about IT security, the controls in place to detect cyber attacks were very vigilant around this.
A
member raised a concern the Blueprint for Change was cited as the resolution to
issues around social care, the Assistant Director, SWAP advised that any audit
review that received a partial assurance opinion would be followed up as a
matter of course to ensure that the recommendations made had been effectively
implemented. The Monitoring Officer
added that if members had concerns regarding the Blueprint for Change programme
these could be raised with the People Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
An
update from Deloitte, the external auditors, was given to members. The Audit and Financial Statement was well
under way as was the testing in all areas.
They were starting to see some areas with legacy systems and had regular
calls with officers of the Council. The valuation work had been a huge piece of
work.
Following
a question regarding contracts for hotels in the Weymouth area that were used
to house homeless people and whether Deloitte would be looking at the internal
control system used, the representative advised that they would not look at
them specifically and that a sample test might not select them but undertook to
liaise with the Corporate Director Finance and Commercial and look at it along
with the value for money work.
Decision
1. That an update on Pupil Premium Plus be included for members at their
meeting in September and that the relevant officers be invited to attend.
2. That an item regarding whistlebowing and anti-fraud corruption be added to the Forward Plan for September.
Supporting documents: