Agenda and minutes

Apologies received from Barrie Cull and from Catriona Ellis.

No declarations of interest were stated.

The public minutes of the meeting that was held on 4^th June 2019 were agreed and signed as correct record.

In accordance with the Council’s Constitution, questions that are not specific to reports on the agenda must have been received in writing 10 working days before the date of the meeting. This being the case, any questions for the Audit Sub Committee that are not specific to the agenda should be received by the Democratic Services Team by 5.00pm on Thursday, October 3^rd. 

Questions specifically concerning reports on the agenda should be received within two working days of the publication date of the agenda.  Please ensure that questions specifically regarding reports on the agenda are received by the Democratic Services Team by 5pm on Thursday 10^th October.

No questions had been received.

CSD 19142

The Committee noted the matters that had arisen from previous meetings.

The Committee was pleased to note that all of the matters with one exception had now been resolved.

Members were disappointed to note that the matter of the objection to the accounts had still not been closed. An update regarding this had been included in the Internal Audit Progress report.

RESOLVED that the Matters Outstanding report is noted.

The following reports have been published on the Council website:

1-Review of Adults Health and Social Care Integration

2-Audit Review of Creditors 2018 to 2019

3-Review of ASC Domiciliary Care Contract Management

4-Review of Extra Care Housing

5-Review of Highways (Major Works) Audit

6-Review of no Recourse to Public Funds Audit for 2018 to 2019

7-Review of Riverside School

8-Internal Audit Review of the recent Troubled Families Claim

9-Review of Contract Management of the Council’s IT Contractor

10-Review of Direct Payments (Children)

11-Review of Education, Care and Health Services Capital Schemes

12-Review of Fostering

13-Review of Licensing

14-Post Implementation Review of the Libraries Contract

15-Review of Starters and Leavers

16-Review of Workforce Planning Audit

The web link to the published reports is:

https://cds.bromley.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=559&MId=6807&Ver=4

No questions had been received regarding the Internal Audit reports that had been published on the Bromley Council website.

Note: In the minutes, reference is made to P1, P2 and P3 recommendations. This refers to Priority One, Priority Two and Priority Three recommendations made by the Internal Audit Team—with Priority One being the most urgent.

The Internal Audit Progress report updated Members concerning the work undertaken by the Internal Audit Team since the previous meeting held on 4th June 2019. Members were briefed concerning the progress made in implementing the previous P1 recommendations and were alerted to new P1 recommendations that had since appeared.

The Assistant Director for Highways attended the meeting to update the Committee concerning the recommendations that had been made following the audit of the Highways Maintenance Contract. 

Members were concerned because the audit of the Highways Maintenance Contract had resulted in 3 new P1 recommendations as well as 2 P2 recommendations. Because of this, the overall audit opinion was ‘Limited’.

Management attention was required in various areas, including:

·  The selection process of highways for the major works programme

·  Management and delivery of the agreed highways schemes

·  Controls relating to Crossovers

Members were concerned to note that with respect to 4/4 of the sampled carriageways incorporated in the Highways Investment Schemes, the total cost of highways maintenance was £305,921, but there was no documented evidence for the rationale regarding the expenditure. Back up information was not retained and there were no written procedure notes that could be referred to. Further deficiencies had been identified in respect of the management of the delivery of the agreed Highways Investment Scheme, as noted in the report.

It had also been identified in the audit that there was no documented procedure to manage requests for the reconstruction and widening of crossovers. Greater formality was needed. The Assistant Director acknowledged that better processes for dealing with documentation and record keeping were required. He felt that the Sharepoint system should be used going forward to store data such as survey records. The data would then be easier to access and manage as it would be stored in a central location.

The Chairman mentioned issues that had arisen previously with respect to fraud relating to crossovers. The Assistant Director assured that all of the payments relating to the crossovers in the report could be evidenced. Five members of the public received a quote, three had the work done, but two did not take up the quote.  Members of the public sometimes asked for a quote on the day. The engineer would then provide a written quotation, and if the customer wanted the work to go ahead, they would contact Liberata and make a card payment. The Assistant Director agreed that a record of this quotation should be kept, even if it was a photo taken on a mobile phone.

A Member commented that it would have been useful to have some sort or record of the state of the roads when the surveys were undertaken included in the PDS Committee papers, as otherwise it made it difficult to compare schemes and whether  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

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 Internal Audit Fraud and Investigation report provided an overview of Counter Fraud work in 2019/20.  It also informs Members of recent activity on fraud and investigations across the Council and provides updates on matters arising from previous Audit Sub Committee meetings.  The report detailed updates on previous reported cases, expanded on new cases of interest and details cases on the fraud risk register. 

As the report was a Part 2 item, the full minutes for this report are noted in the

Part 2 minutes.  

The exempt minutes of the meeting held on 4^th June 2019 were agreed and signed as a correct record.