Issue - meetings
Quarterly Assurance Report
Meeting: 23/09/2015 - Audit Committee (Item 4)
4 Quarterly Assurance Report PDF 225 KB
Minutes:
The Head of Audit and Risk Management introduced the report. He advised:
· That the report summarised the internal audit work in the period June - August 2015 and reported the assurance rating of each audit finalised in this period. The Committee noted that 16 audits had been completed in the period, two of which had returned a limited assurance.
· That assigning a limited assurance triggered a follow-up audit focussed around implementation of all recommendations arising from the initial audit.
· That the audit team was presently on target to complete its schedule of audits in accordance with the annual audit plan.
Members noted that there were ‘priority one’ recommendations yet to be implemented six months after the initial audit had taken place. They were dissatisfied with this situation and advised officers that Audit Committee would monitor this matter closely with the aim of evidencing improved responses. They asked:
· That managers explain why recommendations had yet to be implemented.
· That the Head of Audit and Risk Management report to Members any trends which might affect the audit outcomes such as long-term sickness restructures or other influencing factors.
- That a milestone-based programme of recommendations be incorporated into a performance framework for managers to ensure that recommendations can be monitored against targets and implementations pursued.
- That future Audit Assurance reports include milestones to set an expectation of a compliance framework.
Action by: Minesh Jani, Head of Audit and Risk Management
Quarterly Audits
Contract Management of Photocopying and Printing Contract
The Head of Audit and Risk Management introduced the item informing Members that the follow up audit had returned a limited assurance because of the following issues:
- 11 lease agreements had not been signed by the authority and the supplier.
- Orders were being raised after invoices were received,
- Reports on MFD usage did not capture accurate usage information
- there was no evidence that sample checks of machine usage were being carried out,
- there were no minutes of meetings held in respect of monitoring undertaken by Agilisys in respect of the Xerox contract.
The Head of ICT Client Team responded to the issues raised informing the committee that:
- Difficulties had risen in regard to the first audit recommendation as the procedure was not clear to the client team undertaking the purchases. Therefore leases had not been signed by a member of the Council's Legal Section. These issues have now been resolved.
- Concerning the second recommendation, the non-compliance had arisen as some payments ‘overs and unders’ were due to the implementation of a new process. This had been rectified.
- Concerning mis-matching usage data, upon investigation it was found that the recording errors originated within the Xerox copier machines which were misreading the types of copying carried out. This was rectified by the implementation of a regular sampling process.
- Concerning the failure to keep detailed minutes of meetings the matter was investigated and it was found that minutes were being recorded via an alternative method. Steps had been taken to rectify this matter.
Responding to a ... view the full minutes text for item 4