Agenda item

Report CEO1187

The Sub-Committee received its regular update on internal audit activity across the Council, and discussed the following matters in particular.

• The future of Internal Audit. Following an Aligning Policy and Finance Review, which had been considered by the Improvement and Efficiency Sub-Committee in October, it was proposed to reduce the size of the Internal Audit Team to a Head of Internal Audit and six auditors, four devoted to Bromley work and two to sold services with LB Greenwich and Academy Schools. A 40% reduction in auditor days to around 700 to 750 for Bromley work would be required. Staff were currently being consulted on the proposals.  Servicing the Sub-Committee’s meetings used considerable management resources, so Members accepted that it would be appropriate to reduce the scheduled meetings to three per annum, with more information briefings being circulated. The Chief Internal Auditor informed the Sub-Committee that he did have reservations about the scale of the reduction, which would leave Bromley with one of the lowest internal audit coverages in London. He had discussed this with the Chief Executive, who had undertaken to buy in additional support in the event of significant fraud cases or other unpredicted levels of unplanned work.

• Academy Schools. It was confirmed that a stand-alone unit was in place to deal with Academies. The fee of £290 per day was considered to be competitive, but Internal Audit needed to market their service effectively. It was also commented that there should be a proper cost-base so that the Council was not under-cutting unfairly other providers.

• Review of ACS Debtors. A report had been submitted to Adult and Community PDS Committee in November setting out the new actions being taken to reduce the level of outstanding debt, including fortnightly arrears meetings. Internal Audit would monitor the situation and report back as necessary.

• Risk Management. The Sub-Committee noted the Corporate Risks set out in Appendix G to the report – a senior officer would be named for each risk, although in some cases they had not yet been allocated. The Vice-Chairman reminded officers about the need to put values against risks – it was confirmed that this had been attempted where possible.

• Audit Plan Progress (Appendix B) Councillor Nicholas Bennett requested a copy of the Communications Audit report, and noted that there was limited assurance on the HR Agency Staff review. On the Information Requests audit, he stated that it was essential to have a central coordinator for Freedom of Information requests, and that Members needed more information about the pattern of requests. He was concerned that Members were not aware of the decisions being taken by officers about the future of this service, and suggested that this issue needed to be flagged up at the next meeting of the General Purposes and Licensing Committee. The Chief Internal Auditor confirmed that the proposals had arisen out of the need to achieve budget savings in the central departments, and that in some cases the central coordination role might be carried out in other departments. 

RESOLVED that

(1)  The updates in the report and the continuing achievements of the counter fraud benefit partnership with Greenwich Council be noted.

(2)  The Sub-Committee notes that Aligning Policy and Finance review of Internal Audit and the budget savings proposed as part of the Council’s challenging but necessary savings targets.

(3)  The Sub-Committee notes the valuable work of Internal Audit both in conducting “value for money” assessments and in ensuring that the financial information provided to Members and managers is of sufficient quality to make reliable and quality decisions, particularly in the light of the current financial challenges facing all of the Council.

(4)  The Sub-Committee also notes the key role played by Internal Audit (in conjunction with the Joint Fraud partnership with LB Greenwich) and in particular the significant increase in reports and cases of fraud seen across the public sector recently, and the call on audit resources that this has required and which will continue to do so in the current economic climate.