Meeting documents

To consider this report.

The Committee considered and discussed this report that contained information about the internal auditors’ opinion on the adequacy and effectiveness of the Council’s internal control framework for the year ending 31 March 2021. It was noted that despite a limited number of control issues previously reported to the Committee, SWAP had given a reasonable opinion for the control framework in place, and this had been incorporated into the Annual Governance Statement.

Members heard that the pandemic had resulted in a change to some of the audits planned as the Council realigned its priorities and this had resulted in new risks associated with mitigating against Covid-19 being established such as the audit of new grants. The plan delivered was different from the one originally intended but this had been the same throughout the country, however members were reassured that all the audits of strategic risks across the organisation were still delivered.

It was reported that the ‘Healthy Organisation’ was a review of the corporate control framework and remained a key source of assurance and had resulted in an overall rating of medium. It was noted this was a significant improvement since the last review, two years previously, as the Council’s financial management rating had moved from ‘Amber’ to ‘Green’ due to better budget planning, setting and management. Frameworks in areas previously assessed as strong, such as performance, programme and people management had also remained as such or had improved further. It was explained that the auditors had concluded that the considerable actions taken by the Council to respond to the pandemic, which included emergency governance arrangements and redeployment of hundreds of staff, had not resulted in any significant adverse impact on service delivery or the overarching control framework.

In response to a question, it was explained that it had been necessary to reschedule some of the planned follow-up reviews, to 2021/22, to allow more time for agreed recommendations to be implemented. Six follow-up audits had been carried out during the year and overall, this work had confirmed the implementation of agreed recommendations to mitigate exposure to areas of significant risk. For five of the six audits, the risks had been judged to have been reduced sufficiently to be removed from the risk management system. 

There was a brief discussion of the report and in particular the phrase "agreed with managers" and it was explained that a plan of audit work was agreed with managers and the findings would be reported back informally and formally before the final report was issued and agreement to the recommendations was obtained. In respect of the advisory audit on highways maintenance it was noted this was in the plan for 2021/2022 and it was requested if the graphics to show the ‘Healthy Organisation’ summary could include an indication of direction of travel.

On the issue of staff redeployment having had little impact on service delivery it was explained that the context had been to demonstrate the impact on the intended audit plan and the opinion had been based on a different plan to the one intended as some audits could not be delivered due to redeployment, but that those delayed audits had been carried forward and not lost. It was also noted there had been no cases of whistle blowing for 2 years and the Director of Finance confirmed that he was in discussion with the internal auditors and the Council’s Monitoring Officer about how to address this and he would update a future meeting.

Members noted Appendix A, which detailed the summary of delivery of the work for 2020/21, and answers were provided for specific questions on various services areas and it was noted that some recommended actions that appeared to be outstanding for some time were due to programmed improvements and therefore did not mean that the required remedial work had not been addressed.

Members accepted the report and the internal audit Annual Opinion report and its conclusions.

The Committee considered and discussed this report that contained information about the internal auditors’ opinion on the adequacy and effectiveness of the Council’s internal control framework for the year ending 31 March 2021. It was noted that despite a limited number of control issues previously reported to the Committee, SWAP had given a reasonable opinion for the control framework in place, and this had been incorporated into the Annual Governance Statement.

Members heard that the pandemic had resulted in a change to some of the audits planned as the Council realigned its priorities and this had resulted in new risks associated with mitigating against Covid-19 being established such as the audit of new grants. The plan delivered was different from the one originally intended but this had been the same throughout the country, however members were reassured that all the audits of strategic risks across the organisation were still delivered.

It was reported that the ‘Healthy Organisation’ was a review of the corporate control framework and remained a key source of assurance and had resulted in an overall rating of medium. It was noted this was a significant improvement since the last review, two years previously, as the Council’s financial management rating had moved from ‘Amber’ to ‘Green’ due to better budget planning, setting and management. Frameworks in areas previously assessed as strong, such as performance, programme and people management had also remained as such or had improved further. It was explained that the auditors had concluded that the considerable actions taken by the Council to respond to the pandemic, which included emergency governance arrangements and redeployment of hundreds of staff, had not resulted in any significant adverse impact on service delivery or the overarching control framework.

In response to a question, it was explained that it had been necessary to reschedule some of the planned follow-up reviews, to 2021/22, to allow more time for agreed recommendations to be implemented. Six follow-up audits had been carried out during the year and overall, this work had confirmed the implementation of agreed recommendations to mitigate exposure to areas of significant risk. For five of the six audits, the risks had been judged to have been reduced sufficiently to be removed from the risk management system. 

There was a brief discussion of the report and in particular the phrase "agreed with managers" and it was explained that a plan of audit work was agreed with managers and the findings would be reported back informally and formally before the final report was issued and agreement to the recommendations was obtained. In respect of the advisory audit on highways maintenance it was noted this was in the plan for 2021/2022 and it was requested if the graphics to show the ‘Healthy Organisation’ summary could include an indication of direction of travel.

On the issue of staff redeployment having had little impact on service delivery it was explained that the context had been to demonstrate the impact on the intended audit plan and the opinion had been based on a different plan to the one intended as some audits could not be delivered due to redeployment, but that those delayed audits had been carried forward and not lost. It was also noted there had been no cases of whistle blowing for 2 years and the Director of Finance confirmed that he was in discussion with the internal auditors and the Council’s Monitoring Officer about how to address this and he would update a future meeting.

Members noted Appendix A, which detailed the summary of delivery of the work for 2020/21, and answers were provided for specific questions on various services areas and it was noted that some recommended actions that appeared to be outstanding for some time were due to programmed improvements and therefore did not mean that the required remedial work had not been addressed.

Members accepted the report and the internal audit Annual Opinion report and its conclusions.