Agenda item

Report of the Shared Internal Audit Service (SIAS) which provides details on the progress made by SIAS in delivering the Council’s Annual Audit Plan for 2022/23 as of 9 September 2022

Members received a report of the Shared Internal Audit Service (SIAS) which provided details of:

•           Progress made by SIAS in delivering the Council’s Annual Audit Plan for 2022/23 as at 9 September 2022.

•           In-Year Audit Plan review and proposed plan amendments.

•           The implementation status of previously agreed audit recommendations.

•           An update on performance indicators as at 9 September 2022.

There has been one final audit report issued since the previous progress report, relating to the 2022/23 audit plan. This relates to Grant Certification with an unqualified opinion provided.

The status of the one remaining audit from the Council’s 2021/22 audit plan is on Training Budgets where a draft report has been issued and awaits a management response.  

The Audit Committee are requested to confirm the approval of two further audits for completion in Q4, the first being Procurement Board, and Procurement cards.

No new high priority recommendations have been raised as a result of the work completed and reported in the table at paragraph 2.2. Therefore, there are no outstanding high priority recommendations.

There are six medium priority recommendations, due for follow up by the end of September. Three have been implemented and an update has been provided regarding the status of each remaining outstanding audit recommendation and is included in appendix D. One update had not been provided at the time of this report being issued this relates to the council’s website recommendation. An update has since been provided confirming a review of the council’s subsites has been undertaken. A report will be going to the Senior Leadership Team making final recommendations following discussion with internal and external stakeholders. Work is expected to be concluded by 31 December 2022.

Two minor plan amendments have been agreed with management within this reporting period, the first reflecting an additional grant certification, and a second relates to the cancellation of the Voids Management Audit, due to the timing of the implementation of the new Housing Maintenance Contract, with the remaining days added to the existing Housing Maintenance Contract Mobilisation Audit. This extension will look to include a review of process mapping provided by the new contractor in advance of the contract going live and will include the voids management process.

SIAS have provided an overall progress update on performance indicators as at 9 September 2022. Since the report has been published an additional draft report has been issued moving this performance indicator to 19%. It is worth noting that SIAS are currently behind profile for both billable days and projects delivered to draft report status. This is primarily a result of staff vacancies and a challenging recruitment market. Additional commencement of field work has been delayed for two of the 2022/23 audits, this relates to the vaccine update audit where the terms of reference have now been issued, and the cyber risk audit which is now in field work and is due a draft report shortly. A recent recruitment campaign has allowed SIAS to fill four of these vacancies with two now in post and the remaining two starting in October. In addition, a further recruitment campaign is planned in the autumn. The service mitigates this using an external delivery company (BDO) allowing work to be reassigned.  A high proportion of the plan schedule is due to be delivered in the final six months of the financial year. SIAS are able to provide assurance that all audits within the 2022/23 plan will be allocated before the end of the financial year and will not impact on the ability to provide a robust annual opinion. Continued updates will be provided to the committee and the councils Section 151 Officer.

Members asked how the rent standard is linked to inflation. Officers advised that in terms of the rents policy, the government is currently consulting on a 5% cap and also seeking views on a 7% and 3% cap.

Resolved (Unanimous)

(1)        The committee noted the Internal Audit Progress Report for the period to 9 September 2022.

(2)        The committee noted the implementation status of internal audit recommendations and the management update.

(3)        The committee approved the two Medium Priority audits to be undertaken in quarter 4 2022/23.