Agenda item

To receive the Head of Audit’s annual assurance report.

The Committee received a report containing the annual assurance report.

The CIPFA Code of Practice for Internal Auditors places a duty on the Head of Internal Audit to provide a written report to those charged with governance.  The report, which is used to support the Council’s Annual Governance Statement, summarises the results and conclusions of Internal Audit work for 2012/13 and includes an overall opinion of the adequacy of the control environment. 

It was reported that from the internal audit work carried out during 2012/13 which resulted in 59 out of 63 cases receiving a satisfactory assurance rating, 4 cases receiving a limited assurance rating and no cases occurring where no assurance was given, the Head of Audit and Risk Management was able to provide reasonable assurance that most areas of the Local Authority had sound systems of internal control in place.  Four areas were found to have significant weaknesses and measures have been taken to mitigate the risks arising.  Arising from the Members’ queries the following points were noted:

• Fewer audits were carried out during 2012/13 than in 2011/12 and 2010/11 (63 compared to 76 and 74 respectively).  However, the audits done were  more intensive and placed a greater demand on resources than those in previous years 
• The key Indicator for the CONTROCC Payments and Receipts Audit had not been met because it had not been possible to issue the draft report within the agreed timescales. It was stressed that production of a thorough high quality report was more important than rushing to meet a report deadline but the timeliness of report production was monitored to prevent problems occurring
• Efforts are made to recover overpayments of Benefits when they are identified through claw backs on future benefits payments

The Committee expressed concern that weaknesses had been identified in the pre-employment checks at two primary schools and it was confirmed that the weaknesses related to the lengthy of time that it took for Disclosure Barring Service checks to be completed and an absence of evidence that confirmed that appropriate supervisory measures were put in place for new members of staff who commenced work before the Disclosure Barring Service checks had been completed.  The Committee requested reassurance that action had been taken to remedy the situation, including details of the revised arrangements being introduced by the Disclosure Barring Service

The Committee expressed concern that weaknesses had been identified in the arrangements for ICT system provision that would have left the Council vulnerable in the event of a system failure.  It was questioned whether disaster recovery processes had been included in the Council’s Strategic Risk Register.  The Committee requested that their concerns be passed to the Chief Officer: ICT Services and that a report on the matter be brought to the Committee’s next meeting.

RESOLVED that:

1. The Head of Audit and Risk Management’s Annual Report setting out the Head of Internal Audit’s Opinion for 2012/13 be noted
2. An update on the weaknesses identified in the pre-employment checks at schools and the actions taken to remedy the situation be brought to the Committee’s next meeting
3. An update on the weaknesses identified in the ICT disaster recovery system and the actions taken to remedy the situation be brought to the Committee’s next meeting