Agenda item

REPORT OF THE SHARED INTERNAL AUDIT SERVICES AUDIT MANAGER

To consider an update on the progress of the Shared Internal Audit Services (SIAS) against the 2017/18 Audit Plan.

RESOLVED:

(1)       That the Internal Audit Progress Report for the period to 1 December 2017 be noted;

(2)       That the proposed amendments to the 2017/18 Annual Audit Plan be noted; and

(3)       That the implementation status of high priority recommendations be noted.

REASON FOR DECISION: To allow the Committee to review, comment and challenge the current status of the Internal Audit Plan.

The Audit Manager (SIAS) introduced the recently appointed Client Audit Manager (Mark Chalkley) who would in be the SIAS contact going forward for NHDC internal audit matters.  The Chairman welcomed Mark to his first meeting of the Committee.

The Client Audit Manager (SIAS) presented an update report on progress against the 2017/18 Audit Plan.

The Client Audit Manager advised that, since the preparation of the report, SIAS had delivered 60% of planned audit days (229 days in total), and had issued a further five draft audit reports.

The Client Audit Manager drew attention to the two medium priority recommendations arising from the Office Accommodation Project audit summarised in Paragraph 2.3.  He commented no new high priority recommendations had been made since the last meeting, and that the two high priority recommendations set out in the report had been implemented and would therefore be removed from the next update report.  A number of small changes had been made to the budgets of a number of audits to reflect adjustments to the scope of those audits.

In terms of planned projects, the Client Audit Manager reported that SIAS had now achieved 14 out of 36 (39%).  He explained that the Tree Strategy & Management  and Taxi Licensing audits had moved to draft report stage.  The Telephony Review audit was expected to reach draft report stage in the near future.  The General ledger, Debtors and Creditors audits had been moved to February/March 2018 as a result of the planned Integra 2 upgrade.

The Client Audit Manager referred to Appendix D to the report, which set out the current approach in respect of the definition of High, Medium and Merits Attention audit recommendations, as requested by the Committee at its meeting held in September 2017.

In response to a Member’s question, it was confirmed that the two Medium priority recommendations with regard to the Office Accommodation Project audit had been implemented.

At the Chairman’s request, the Client Audit Manager undertook to remove the information in the tables set out in Paragraph 2.9 of the report in respect of progress on Audit Plan Delivery, as this was a duplication of the same information set out in Appendix D of the report.

The Chairman asked the Client Audit Manager to update the Committee on audit planning for 2018/19.  The Client Audit Manager replied planning had started, and that he and the Head of Finance, Performance and Asset Management had conducted some preliminary discussions.  The Client Audit Manager would be attending the NHDC Senior Management Team meeting in January 2018, following which he would meet with each Head of Service individually to identify a long list of potential audits.  He and the Head of Finance, Performance and Asset Management would then meet to the review the list and refine it to focus the audit workload on the key financial risks faced by the Council, all leading to the finalised Audit Plan for 2018/19 being presented to the Committee at its March 2018 meeting.

RESOLVED:

(1)       That the Internal Audit Progress Report for the period to 1 December 2017 be noted;

(2)       That the proposed amendments to the 2017/18 Annual Audit Plan be noted; and

(3)       That the implementation status of high priority recommendations be noted.

REASON FOR DECISION: To allow the Committee to review, comment and challenge the current status of the Internal Audit Plan.