Issue - meetings

FSD 18037

The Internal Audit Progress report was written by David Hogan, Head of Audit.

The report had been drafted to update Members of recent audit activity across the Council and provided an update on matters that had arisen since the last meeting of the Committee. The Committee was asked to note the report and to comment on matters arising, as well as noting the list of internal audit reports published on the Council’s web site. Members were also being asked to approve the nomination for Auditor of the Year and to note the latest position on the Council’s Departmental and Corporate Risk Registers.

The Head of Audit briefed Members around the Priority 1 (P1) update for document storage and retention. It had been mentioned previously that this matter was directly related to the Civic Centre Accommodation Strategy. It was noted that the brief for the Instruction and Intention to Tender for a Multi-Disciplinary Consultancy Evaluation for the Civic Centre Strategy referenced the need to move to a paper light environment, and it was expected that the consultants would be appointed in quarter 2 of 2018.

It was noted that 20 Bromley officers had been emailed and reminded to confirm the destruction of 904 boxes held by TNT. Some officers were planning to visit the storage site during the summer when work levels had decreased. It was clarified that the storage site was based in Essex. The Chairman enquired how the costs for the storage were apportioned, and the Head of Audit responded that he presumed that the costs would be recharged to the various departments. Ms Pilkington informed the Committee that the cost of storing the 904 boxes was in the region of £2k per annum. 

Members were told that going forward (and especially with the current GDPR initiatives) there would be a requirement for a twofold focus. One would be concerning the destruction of existing boxes, and the other focus would be on reducing the volume of stored data. The P1 recommendation remained outstanding.

With respect to the Review of Waivers, Members heard that both P1 recommendations were being progressed as part of the electronic authorisation process, and that this was connected to the development of the Contracts Database. (CDB).  In the meantime, paper authorisation forms were being used. Although the recommendations were in progress, they remained open. It was expected that the renewal reminders being generated from the Contracts Database would reduce the number of waivers requested.

Members were appraised concerning the Reablement Service. They were informed that as the service had remained in-house, the P1 recommendation relating to the use of the Outcome Management Tool had been re-instated. The P1 recommendation relating to key performance data had only been partially implemented. It was clarified that the ‘target of 65%’ related to time actually spent with clients.

A brief update was provided concerning the Contributions Policy. It had previously been the case that users of the Reablement Service were not being charged for cancelled calls where sufficient  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7