Agenda item
Quarterly Assurance Report
Minutes:
The Head of Risk Management and Audit presented the Quarterly Assurance Report, which summarised the work of Internal Audit for the period September 2014 to November 2014.
The Committee heard that;
· 18 Audits were undertaken
· 9 were assigned Limited Assurance and of these 4 were school audits.
· The Audit performance against the Audit plan achieved a return of 48% as opposed to 50%.
· All priority 1 recommendations will be expected to be implemented in the next quarter and priority 2 recommendations will be implemented over the next 6 months.
· Appendix 3 (page 55 of agenda pack) indicates the number of recommendation remaining to be implemented.
· It was stated that internal auditors have made recommendations that management have agreed.
The Committee were also told that a number of key performance indicators in relation to the audit plan were identified with delivery being slightly behind than planned however the target is to deliver plan by the end of March 2015.
Summary of Audits assigned Limited Assurance
Pest control audit
This was assigned limited assurance. Feedback was provided and it was identified that a number of services were being provided free of charge and some Service Level Agreements (SLAs) were not updated and reviewed. There were also a number of jobs which were left open on the system and showed as “outstanding”.
The Head of Consumer and Business Regulations informed the Committee that the properties listed on the management system had been updated. There were 86 properties on the system and 21 of them were chargeable. The Committee heard that there was 0.6% loss on income and 50% of the jobs recorded open at the time of the audit, 50% had been closed.
Monitoring and control of mainstream grants
This was assigned Limited Assurance. The Committee were told that although there were examples of good practice in some directorates and there was authorisation of payments in line with guidelines. However there were no documented monitoring procedures currently in place.
Specific issues on Youth Connexions
The Committee were informed that there were no documented monitoring procedures currently in place for those organisations receiving MSG funding for the Youth and Connexions projects.
Luncheon Club projects
The Committee were told that some service providers were not achieving the targeted outputs for which the grant was awarded.
The Third Sector Programmes Manager informed the Committee that there are 11 funding streams across ESCW, CLC and D&R. A number of weaknesses were found in the programmes tested however they had been addressed by setting out clear procedures guidance for officers administering grants.
The Committee heard that all grants officers had been given a Grants Procedure Manual and they are to attend a briefing so they understand the procedures. In addition, all grants officers have been asked to implement procedures give feedback to the Third Sector Programme Manager, to ensure that the manual can be improved and updated with relevant practices.
In response to Members questions, the Committee heard that;
· Officers had access to the manual before the audit however it was in draft and not implemented across the funding streams. The final draft has now been signed off and distributed to all grants officers so that they can follow the approved procedures.
· The audit was finalised in August 2014 and given the timing of this, the officers who were monitoring the grants at the time were also required to simultaneously provide information to Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) inspectors.
· The Limited Assurance level indicates that there was monitoring taking place but the controls did not meet the expected standards and any deficiencies identified by internal and external audit needed to be addressed immediately and the report regarding the monitoring of grants highlighted how officers could strengthen governance of grants.
Members requested information regarding when the last audit of this area was conducted:
Action by Head of Risk Management and Audit: Minesh Jani
Members also requested that an officer attend the next meeting of the Audit Committee to explain the lack of monitoring on Youth Connexions.
Management and control of mobile phones
This audit was assigned Limited Assurance due to staff not being able to review mobile phone usage effectively.
The Committee were told that, although there was good practice in checking if employees reached threshold of usage, there was no evidence of how this was being monitored.
A usage report obtained from Agilysis for April 2014 showed that there were 1,565 accounts where “usage” charges were zero for the month.
Directorates and departments were responsible for administering pool phones, standby phones and returned phones, and the audit highlighted that this was not being done effectively.
The Chair moved and it was;-
RESOLVED
That the contents of the Quarterly Assurance report be noted taking account the assurance opinion assigned to the systems reviewed during the period.
Supporting documents: