Minesh Jani, Divisional Director for Risk Management presented his Audit Report for 2016/17. He referred Members to page 144 of the agenda and said paragraph 3.2 set out what the report encompassed. He made reference to the table at 8.3, page 146 which summarised the audit assurance resulting from audit reports in 2016/17. 22% of services had achieved ‘limited assurance’ and Officers from the services were present to answer questions from Members.

Members of the Audit Committee asked the following questions:

·         Were there no ‘nil’ returns?

The table captures information from 2016/17 and there were no ‘nil’ returns. 

·         Referring to Page 148, what does the Committee need to do in order to ensure recommendations from internal audit reports are fully implemented, in a timely way?

The Audit Committee does have a role and if services are repeatedly coming to Audit then it raises questions about how effective Risk Management has been.

o   ACTION: Recommendations arising from audit reports should be referred to the Corporate Leadership Team to ensure they are aware how services are preforming and what recommendations are outstanding.

·                What effect has the churn of staff and interim appointments had on services moving from ‘limited’ assurance to ‘substantial’.

Churn of staff does have a detrimental effect on services, however the Council is moving forward with its transformation programme with services and methodology changing.

·                When recommendations are made how does Audit test the vigour with which the recommendations are implemented?

Audit will always follow up recommendations with ‘follow up’ visits and recommendations are fully reported back to Service Heads and Divisional Directors. The Audit Plan is devised in consultation with Senior Management and takes into account areas of concern. The Best value regime has raised the need to improve Risk Management and the control environment.

The Audit Committee heard further from Officers in the following services:

Management and Control of Parking Permits

Michael Darby, Head of Parking and Mobility Services, informed members that out of the 16 recommendations 6 recommendations were moving forward and 10 were dependant on a new IT system being in place. Mr Darby stated tenders were being sought and it was hoped the new system would be in place by February 2018. Tony Qayum offered assistance in ensuring bidders/providers had the correct risk controls when procuring the PSI system.

It was agreed the ‘follow up’ visit by Audit should take place in April 2018 once the new system had bedded in.

Brady Arts Centre and Kobi Nazul Centre

Steve Murray Head of Arts and Events informed Members that the Service had made significant progress against the 6 recommendations identified by Audit. Members of staff had been trained to use the HR Self-Service Portal to book annual leave and flexi time sheets and sickness records were cross referenced. He said the Centre kept hard copies of the return to work interviews conducted with staff and had tightened up procedures relating to purchase cards.

·         Cllr Hassell asked if issues such as timesheets and purchase cards could be explored  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3