Agenda item

To receive the report from the Internal Audit and Risk Manager.

The committee received the internal audit update report for quarter three 2023/24, presented by the internal audit and risk manager. The report summarised the outcome of the work done in quarter three, and the progress made against the 2022/23 and current year internal audit plans. She noted that all the audits had been completed for the 2022/23 plan and that they were on track with the 2023/24 plan.

Specific to quarter three, the internal audit and risk manager highlighted that there was only one limited assurance report which was for the councils’ grounds and parks maintenance. The auditor for that report, John Tredrea, introduced the report for the committee and indicated that there were 18 actions that were recommended across the three service areas, Grounds Maintenance, Parks, and Trees.

The technical services manager for this area, John Backley, expanded on the reasons behind risks identified in the audit and why not all targeted actions for the 31 December 2023 were met, the primary reason being that the service area had been lacking the additional officer resources that they had expected. In addition, he informed the committee that he envisaged that some actions targeted for the 31 March 2024 may also not be met for the same reason. However, the technical services manager assured members that the high priority actions about health and safety were met.

Some members expressed concern about the use of tick sheets rather than the data being directly inputted into the councils’ IT software (Concerto) as it could lead to a loss of data or more administrative work in the long term. In addition, they also raised concerns that driving licences were not always available when requested. The technical services manager noted these concerns but assured the committee that the major risks, such as the use of specialist equipment, were being mitigated through training and certification, and that they would continue to work on the other actions raised.

In response to the committee’s questions about how the council could monitor the progress of the audit actions and ensure that progress did not slip too far, the internal audit and risk manager outlined her method for chasing actions but emphasised that the committee were empowered to follow up on all audits. Although the committee recognised that progress would depend on the service area recruiting the additional officer resource, they agreed that they would like to see progress made on the actions and so wanted to track their progress in the next internal audit quarterly update reports.

On the formatting of the internal audit update reports and if performance by service area could be reflected in the list of outstanding actions, the internal audit and risk manager confirmed to members that data could be presented in that way in the future. 

The committee also discussed the reasonable assurance audit for Mobile Home Parks and asked if feedback was being obtained from service users, to which the internal audit and risk manager confirmed that the service area had agreed to the action to introduce a feedback form. On a point about the audit on credit card use by the housing team and if other methods of payment were examined, the internal audit and risk manager responded by detailing the housing payment process and emphasising that credit cards were used after credit limits had been reached with the councils main hotel providers.

Overall, the committee was satisfied with the report but wanted to see more progress being made on the actions that were recommended in the grounds and parks maintenance limited assurance report, recognising that this would depend on the ability of the council to bring in additional officer resources.