Agenda item

The Committee noted a report of the Chief Internal Auditor and Corporate Fraud Manager that presented the Annual Internal Audit Report for 2013/2014 which provided a ‘moderate’ opinion on the adequacy and effectiveness of Council’s control environment for 2013/2014 (for copy see file of Minutes).

The Committee were informed that the moderate opinion gave assurances that there was a sound system of control in place but that there were still areas to improve.  The Chief Internal Auditor and Corporate Fraud Manager reported that there had been fewer limited assurance reports given over the year and due to the constant changes in the authority, sustaining this opinion was seen as positive.

The Chief Internal Auditor and Corporate Fraud Manager referred to a question about the appointment of an IT auditor and confirmed that an appointment had been made.  The Principal IT auditor would be fully qualified by December 2014 and feedback on performance has been good with the quality of work produced, exceptional.  Following on from another question asked relating to the appointment of IT North the Chief Internal Auditor and Corporate Fraud Manager advised that they were called upon to provide additional expertise as and when required.  The Principal IT Auditor shadowed the work carried out by IT North.

Ms Larkin-Bramley suggested that the Principal IT Auditor be invited to a future meeting to give assurances on the system in place for IT controls.

Mr Hoban asked what could be done to gain that extra step and move out of the ‘moderate’ bracket.  The Chief Internal Auditor and Corporate Fraud Manager said that we would always strive for improvements but pointed out that systems were constantly changing.  Some improvements had been made recently for services to involve Internal Audit from the beginning when they change systems, and this could alleviate some problems.

Councillor Temple referred to the Limited Assurances given in resources in relation to Taxation/VAT and Banking Arrangements and asked for an update.  The Corporate Director, Resources explained that both areas had been reported to Audit Committee, as with all Limited Assurance areas.  The Chief Internal Auditor and Corporate Fraud Manager added that all of these reports contained recommendations and that he would chase up to make that they had been implemented.  The Corporate Director, Resources said that following the Bank Reconciliation report improvements had been made and they were up to date every month.

Councillor Hilary asked for an update to the Payment Card Industry opinion.  The Chief Internal Auditor and Corporate Fraud Manager confirmed that this had been reported to Committee in February with a deadline to make improvements by September/October 2014.  A member of staff from Internal Audit was included as part of the team looking at the checklist for improvements.  The Corporate Director, Resources added that significant progress had been made in this area.  Members were informed that Cabinet would be asked to approve the purchase of software to alleviate the risk of the authority being fined for payment card transactions.  The Committee supported the purchase of the software.

Resolved:-

That the report be noted.