Agenda item

Andy Cox presented the report and stated he was seeking Committee involvement in developing the Internal Audit Plan for 2021-22 and how it can respond and change as necessary throughout the year.  He reminded Members that some audits had not been completed this year as planned due to Covid and based on this experience and continuing uncertainty it was reasonable to maintain a flexible approach to planning for 2021/22. 

To assist in considering areas for internal audit review for 2021/22 he highlighted some areas suggested by the Section 151 Officer:

·  work related to Covid funding – e.g. small businesses, retail and leisure grants

·  debt recovery – based on the Council’s challenging financial position

·  information security – with working from home and the changes to working practices

·  disaster and crisis preparedness.

Members of the Committee asked the following questions related to the report and/or raised the following issues for inclusion in the 2021-22 audit plan:

·  What was subject to review in the planned 202/21 Audit of Traffic Signals and Intelligent Networks? (John Barker). Andy Cox responded this was a contract management audit looking at specific areas managed by the Highways team.

·  There was similar pressure on other teams in the audit partnership to complete planned audit work. How would resources available be managed to minimise disruption? (John Barker).  Andy Cox responded that plans were jointly developed to maximise efficiencies, i.e. developing and using a single work programme.  If unplanned work was required the plan would be tailored to the resources available.

·  Andy Cox stated that there was support for obtaining more audit resources to complete the increased unplanned work related to Covid. Approval received to recruit a Senior Auditor and Auditor for a fixed term contract period.

·  Staff wellbeing post pandemic (Councillor Hodge).  Preparing for the future and the impact on wellbeing due to working from home for nearly a year.  In the future flexible working with working from home 2-3 days of the week and the effect on productivity, recruitment and retention.  Andy Cox replied that such a review could be undertaken to consider how the risks related to home working had been managed.  It was notable how staff response to home working had changed through the months - views had changed on home-working through the difficult winter period.

·  The local authority had been a significant agent in the level of grant funding and the volume of transactions should be audited (John Barker).  Andy Cox confirmed the Audit Team had been involved in providing advice about systems of internal control and carrying out post payment review work for grants to small businesses.  It was clear that other work would be required on the distribution of government funded grants including compliance with funding terms and conditions, to provide assurance that the money had been spent well.

·  How were audit resources being used to provide emergency support for social care providers? (John Barker).  Andy Cox reported that one auditor had been working three days a week on the distribution of Infection Control funding.  This was an operational role and therefore another member of the team will be required to carry out an independent review of how funds were distributed. This work would be included in the Plan.

·  The degree of contingency in the plan should be reviewed rigorously to maintain flexibility (John Barker).  Andy Cox replied that if we continue to review and amend the audit plan throughout the year and maintain a flexible plan then there was less of a need to allocate a contingency (number of unallocated days).  They would continuously monitor work required and reconcile that to resources available.

·  Business grants was a massive piece of work and there was a need for transparency to see what funds were available to businesses in the community.  There was some confusion and little communication as to what the grant is for (Councillor Blackburn).  Andy Cox responded that the Council’s primary objective was quite rightly getting the money out to the businesses.  He agreed that communication could always be improved.  It was hoped that communication would be better in the third national lockdown and it was confirmed that a lot had been learned through this process. Andy Cox gave the example of the initial failure to make application information as mandatory part of applications, i.e. mandatory fields – e.g. the registered company number.

·  Items removed from last year’s audit plan – Revenue Estate – Property Acquisitions / Asset Utilisation, the Montague Evans review (Councillor Blackburn).  Andy Cox stated it was unclear whether these two audits would feature in the 2021/22 Audit Plan until all those areas highlighted for review had been risk assessed, placed in risk order and reconciled against resources available.

RESOLVED that

1)  The comments on areas or themes to be considered in relation to the Internal Audit Plan for 2021/22 be noted; and

2)  the intention to keep the plan under review, including a formal re-assessment, be noted.