Issue - meetings

To consider the report.

The Audit Committee:

1.       Noted the position of the 2024-25 Internal Audit Plan and considered any significant governance, risk and control weaknesses identified.

The Audit Committee received the Internal Audit Plan Progress Report 2024-25 from the Assistant Director SWAP Internal Audit Services, Alastair Woodland.

He highlighted the key points of the report as follows:

• The 2024-25 Annual Internal Audit Plan is the provide independent and objective assurance on the Council’s Internal Control Environment. This work will support the Annual Governance Statement.
• 6 planned reviews and support activities have been completed, 14 reviews are in progress and 1 review is at draft stage.
• 2 follow-ups have been finalised to assess risk exposure in previous areas of control weakness.
• 14 recommendations have been completed, 14 priority 1 are overdue and 72 priority 2 are overdue.

The Audit Committee asked a number of questions and made a number of comments which were responded to at the meeting, as follows:

·       Although the Council is going in the right direction, the auditors noted that there was room for improvement and the balance was not where it should be. Time is a concerning factor to get things right.

·       Regarding the lack of assurance on Pupil Referral Units, Officers have responded quickly and much work has been done since June 2024.

·       Debt recovery takes a lot of Officer time. It is an area that needs to be improved such by getting payments up front, timely invoicing etc.

·       The property team needs to be adequately resourced to ensure that nothing is missed. More detail would be available at the Property and Investment Sub-committee.

The Audit Committee:

1.       Noted the position of the 2024-25 Internal Audit Plan and considered any significant governance, risk and control weaknesses identified.