Issue - meetings

This report was written by Luis Remedios, Head of Audit.

Commentary:

The Annual Report of Audit Activity in 2013/14 was written for Member information and was also intended to assist the Council in meeting the financial management and internal control requirements of the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2011. Part of the overall arrangements required the Chief Executive and the Leader to sign an annual governance statement.  Included in this report were highlights of the performance of the Internal Audit function, a summary of the audits undertaken and an opinion on the overall adequacy and effectiveness of the organisation’s internal control environment based on this work and the Annual Governance Statement. Members noted that schools were now included within the report but there was an annual fraud report elsewhere on the agenda.

It was noted by the Committee that Internal Audit work and outputs had been reviewed by External Audit who concluded that Internal Audit were providing a satisfactory service. It was further noted by the Sub-Committee that Internal Audit had completed the high risk audit reviews that had been scheduled in 2013/14 and had received positive feedback from client departments.

The Committee was made aware that over the past year there had been five major investigations reported to the Committee. The resulting investigations, other fraud work, and monitoring the Greenwich partnership had used up a lot of officer time. The summary of audit work undertaken so far had resulted in 86 reports, including schools. 

The Committee commented and noted Section 3.31 on page 23 of the agenda,  “Recommendations by Category”.  It was noted that Authorisation Issues had increased by 6% from the previous year, from 1% to 7%. It was also noted that there was an increase in Breach of Contract/SLA  issues from 4% to 6%. The Committee were impressed by the fact that Breach of Financial Regulations or Procedureshad decreased from 11% to 3% which was good progress. The Committee expressed some concern that Supervisory/Monitoring issues were high at 27%. The Committee were impressed that there was good improvement concerning School Primary Accounting Documentation, with issues falling by 11%.

Members were satisfied about the outcome of the Integration of Public Health Audit that was referred to on page 45 of the Annual Governance Statement. The pre-integration check by Internal Audit had shown that the integration was progressing satisfactorily. 

Councillor Fawthrop noted page 35 of the AGS (Annual Governance Statement) with reference to Bromley being a “value for money council.” Councillor Fawthrop questioned how LBB could be a value for money council if no value for money audit had taken place. The Chairman pointed out that responsibility for ensuring value for money extended across the council and was not solely that of Audit.

Councillor Fawthrop remarked that there should be less reliance on external audits, and more reliance on internal audits.   

RESOLVED that:

(1) the Annual Audit Report 2013/14 be noted

(2) The Sub-Committee approved the Draft Annual Governance Statement