Agenda item

The Audit Manager presented the report. He reminded Members that the Internal Audit plan for 2015/16 had been presented to the Committee on 26 March. The present report summarised performance against the plan for the first six months. 40% of the plan had been substantially completed. Reasons for failure to achieve 50% in the first half-year were set out in paragraph 4.2.3 of the report. New staff would be joining the team in the new year to fill the vacancy mentioned in that paragraph.

He updated Members on the two investigations referred to the police mentioned in paragraph 4.6.1. The Crown Prosecution Service had decided not to pursue one case involving loss of cash at a library. The second case concerning fraud at a waste disposal depot did go to court but was dismissed on a technicality relating to the Police. The outcomes to these cases had been disappointing, given the amount of time and work staff had invested in them.

The joint internal audit working arrangements with North Somerset had formally commenced on 1^st August this year under the banner of ‘Audit West’ with a five-year contract. North Somerset audit staff had transferred to B&NES and in October the transferred staff had been combined into a new structure with the B&NES team. The partnership continued to provide a range of non-core services as set out in section 4.10.2 of the report.

A Member suggested that there was little chance of completing the work programme this year, unless there was money to purchase extra staff resource. The Audit Manager replied that, as reported, a member of staff had left. Recruitment was always a lengthy process, and when new staff joined they had to be integrated in the team, and trained in the use of audit software. No appropriate staff had yet been found through agencies, though efforts were ongoing. The South West Audit Partnership had had a number of staffing issues and all alternatives were being considered.

A Member wondered whether the difficulty in recruiting audit staff was part of a wider problem with local government recruitment and retention because of successive years of caps on pay. He asked whether the expected number of high-calibre applications was being received. The Audit Manager replied that in a fact the applications received were probably above expectations. Current staff had generally been in post for some time, and there was no trend for staff to leave for better paid jobs elsewhere. The Head of Audit West said that both members of staff who had left had gone to highly-paid jobs in financial services, where in general the salary level was 50-60% above that of the public sector. There was no way the Council would ever be able to match that.

A Member asked about how the partnership arrangements were working. The Head of Audit West said that extremely favourable feedback was being received from service managers how audit was now working with them and improving their control framework. He also believed that recent job applicants might not have wished to apply, if the partnership, which could offer more varied and flexible working, had not existed. The two auditors from North Somerset said the partnership was performing well and offered staff new opportunities.

 A Member asked the Audit Manager what had happened to the staff who had been the subject of the two investigations he had referred to. The Audit Manager replied that one had left and that the other had been dismissed.

RESOLVED to note progress made against the Internal Audit Plan for 2015/16.