Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Ian Dunn, Councillor Angela Wilkins attended as substitute.

Apologies were received from Cllr Stephen Wells.

Cllr Fortune apologised for coming late.

There were no declarations of interest.

The public minutes from 1^st April 2015 were agreed.

In accordance with the Council’s Constitution, questions to this Committee must be received in writing 4 working days before the date of the meeting.  Therefore please ensure questions are received by the Democratic Services Team by 5pm on 19^th June 2015.

No questions were received.

Report No: CSD15077

The Committee considered the latest Matters Arising report and noted that all matters had either been resolved, or were in the process of being completed.

RESOLVED that the Matters Arising report be noted.  

Report CEO 1507

This report was written by the Head of Internal Audit 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.

The Committee heard that control issues highlighted in the audit reports could be grouped under 4 categories:

·  Organisational

·  Financial

·  Operational

·  Compliance

Members were directed to the Table on page 9 of the report headed “Recommendations by Category”, and also to the associated Pie Chart on page 10 of the report that showed the same data. The Committee noted that the main audit recommendations for 2014-15 were:

1.  Supervisory and Monitoring recommendations—24%

2.  None or obsolete procedures recommendations—15%

3.  Recommendations relating to lack of supporting documents—9%

4.  Breach of Financial Regulations or Procedures--9%

The Head of Audit then referred Members to Appendix A which detailed a summary of progress and all other audit activity from 1^st April 2014 to 23^rd March 2015. He felt that good progress had been made.

Members were directed to Appendix C which was the Draft Annual Governance Statement. Members were asked to consider and approve this Statement. 

RESOLVED:

(1) that the Annual Audit Report be noted

(2) that the Draft Annual Governance Statement be approved 

Report Number CEO 1508

Members were referred to the Priority 1 update report (Appendix A). The Head of Internal Audit felt that there was now light at the end of the tunnel, and that good progress was being made. He was confident that by November 2015, most recommendations would be implemented. The Head of Internal Audit updated the Committee as follows:

Leaving Care:

A dedicated officer had now been appointed, and this would aid in the implementation of recommendations.

Looked after Children:

Some progress had been made in this area although it was the case that two priority one recommendations still remained. Management were making concerted efforts to implement all the required recommendations. Recovery issues in this case were difficult and now sat with Liberata.

Family Placements

The Head of Audit mentioned that following the nil assurance opinion, the progress made to implement the 8 priority one recommendations was slow with 6 still considered to be outstanding. The officer tasked with implementing these recommendations had recently left the Authority and this may have hampered progress. Management are aware of the need to progress implementation.

Building Maintenance;

After conducting follow ups and sample testing, Internal Audit were now happy that the required improvements had been made, and that Building Maintenance could now be removed from the Priority 1 list.

Creditors: 

The Priority 1 issue in relation to raising retrospective orders was still outstanding. The matter was referred to Directors Group and it was agreed that the position would be addressed.

Rent Arrears: 

This was still on the Priority 1 list as the level of rent arrears was still high. Much of the arrears were historical and some would need to be written off. An ongoing audit was taking place, and an update would be provided at the next meeting. 

Essential Car Users:

Three Priority 1 issues were outstanding. The ECU criteria was being reviewed by management. The scheme was being phased out over the next two years. Audit had advised that there were now 7 staff members that had been in receipt of the allowance, even though they were not doing any mileage. This will be reviewed by management. An email would be sent to advise managers that the relevant checks need to be conducted on driving licenses and business insurance.

The Committee were briefed that RB Greenwich had recently had a system put in place that could check the status of driving licences straight away. It was agreed that the Head of Audit would speak with the Transport Manager at RB Greenwich to get some more information concerning the system, and to see if this was a system that LBB could also use. 

Domciliary Care:

The Head of Audit stated that as a result of an audit two priority one recommendations were made in respect of service arrangements closed on incorrect dates or not closed; and in respect of Extra Care Housing where actual hours delivered were different to planned hours for clients.

The list of 12 Internal Audit reports  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

RESOLVED that the press and public be excluded during consideration of the items of business listed below as it was likely in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings, that if members of the press and public were present, there would be disclosure to them of exempt information.

The exempt minutes of the meeting held on the 1^St April 2015 were noted and agreed.

Report CSD 15078

The part two-private Matters Arising report was noted.

Report CEO 1509

This report was written by the Head of Internal Audit to inform Members of recent internal audit activity on fraud and investigations across the Council, and provided updates on matters arising from previous Audit Sub Committee meetings.

The full minutes of this item will be detailed in the part two minutes.

Report CEO 1506

The report informed Members of all fraud and investigation activity for 2014/15. It summarised all the allegations of fraud that had been received, investigations of matters not fraud related but breach of financial regulations/procedures, results of our housing benefit partnership with the Royal Borough of Greenwich and findings from the National Fraud Initiative (NFI) data match exercise. The report also made reference to other matters such as major investigations, individual cases of interest and a summary of the fraud register.

The minutes relating to this part two report are detailed in the part two minutes.