Agenda item

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

The purpose of the report is to summarise the outcomes of recent internal audit activity at both councils for the committee to review. The committee is asked to monitor progress of management actions to ensure actions are completed correctly in the timescales originally offered by management, and that controls are managing risk more effectively.

RECOMMENDATION:

That members review the results of recent internal audit work and monitor progress of management actions.

The committee received the internal audit update report for quarter one 2024/25, presented by the internal audit and risk manager. The report summarised the outcome of the work done in quarter one and the progress made against the 2023/24 and current year internal audit plans.

The internal audit and risk manager noted that four operational and seven financial audits had been completed in quarter one. At the request of the committee, the report included the split of open management actions by service area, with the highest number in Development and Corporate Landlord (Health and Safety and Grounds and Parks Maintenance audits) and Finance (key financial audits). Since the agenda had been published, the committee noted that a number of actions on the grounds and parks maintenance audit had been completed and were in the process of being validated.

In response to a question about if there were any areas of concern, the internal audit and risk manager assured the committee that she had no concerns about either the operational or financial audits completed in the quarter. However, she did indicate that her team would be following up on some longstanding actions from the general ledger audit.

On the presentation of the report, members mentioned that internal audit report templates could do more to emphasise that the ‘key risks reviewed’ text boxes were not something that had actually occurred, but that they could occur.

Members discussed the number of outstanding actions, including high priority and priority 1 actions, and why this was the case. In response, the internal audit and risk manager noted that these outstanding actions primarily came from health and safety and grounds and parks maintenance audits, and that sufficient progress was being made in those areas. The committee agreed that there should be a clearer way to see what high priority actions were being progressed and which ones were not, so that attention could be more easily drawn to areas not under control. A point was also made that heads of service should be measured against the outstanding actions in their service area. The internal audit and risk manager welcomed the point about tracking the high priority items and agreed to discuss how this could be best presented moving forward with the co-chairs.

A question was raised about the number of complaints being up on the previous year, but the co-chair indicated that the Complaints Review item would be coming to the committee in October where detailed questions about that could be asked.

On the Joint Accounts Receivable 2023/24 internal audit report, members asked about the recovery process. Specifically, it was noted that there was no detail about what amount of debt existed over a certain age and if this had changed and also that the report mentioned there had been no aged debtor report for over two years. In response, the internal audit and risk manager said that the relevant data was collected but was not in the report and that this could be circulated to committee members. The committee agreed that the following up on debts should be looked at more closely as it was not clear about what team was responsible for that. The head of finance indicated that he would examine this and inform the committee.

Overall, as members were satisfied with the report and the actions contained within it, they agreed to note the document.

RESOLVED: to note the internal audit update report quarter one 2024/25.