Agenda item

Report CEO1214

The Sub-Committee considered a summary of recent internal audit activity, and commented as follows.

(a) Priority One Recommendations - Debtors: An analysis of debts over a year old was provided in Appendix B. Many of these debts were for invoices under dispute. The Head of Internal Audit was assured that adequate action was being taken, and there would be an audit on debtors in 2013/14.

(b) Audit Activity and Resources - The establishment of the Internal Audit Team was now up to 6.4 fte posts, still amongst the lowest in London, but enabling an increase in planned audit days. The Team had lost contracts with two academies, but taken on two new schools. Councillor Wells stated that it was expected that there would be more withdrawals, largely on cost grounds. 

(c) Waivers - Details of waivers approved from September 2012 to February 2013 were set out in Appendix C. The Council would be inheriting a number of public health contracts in April 2013, many of which expired in March 2014. There was concern about a sexual health services contract that allowed claims for Bromley residents from anywhere in the country, and a special audit of this was being carried out. Other public health contracts would be targeted in the annual audit plan. Training on Bromley’s financial regulations and contract procedure rules was being provided for public health staff. 

A Member sought information on the Renewal and Recreation waiver of £870,000 relating to an affordable housing payment in lieu; it was confirmed that this concerned Opportunity Site K, and a report on this matter had been considered at the special Executive meeting earlier in the evening. 

Information was requested on the payment of £139,000 to Peopletoo for a Council wide management review. It was explained that this was part of an allocation of £300,000 agreed by the Executive – a further report was being prepared for the Executive’s next meeting in April.

The Vice-Chairman sought further information by email on the following waivers –

• Bromley Link - £144,000
• Specialist statutory assessments for people with visual impairments - £99,000
• Specialist 4x4 winter maintenance vehicle £153,000

(d) Future of Public Audit/Audit Committees - The Government had not amended the draft Local Audit Bill requiring local authorities to have non-elected members for appointing external auditors. The Chairman agreed to write to the Secretary of State, Eric Pickles MP, on this point and to invite him or one of his Team to attend a meeting of the Sub-Committee.

(e) Housing Benefits -It was explained that the swings in housing benefit fraud cases were partly due to the bi-annual National Fraud Initiative. The most recent benchmarking comparisons across London were from about a year ago.

(f) Training – Financial Regulations and Contract Procedure Rules - 350 officers had attended the mandatory training sessions; the next stage was a web-based training package. This was being piloted and would be rolled out after Easter.

(g) Risk Management - The Risk Register was currently being reviewed.  The impact of academy status was included in the Corporate Risk Register. It was confirmed that closure audits would be carried out for all schools leaving the Council’s control. 

The Council’s staffing attrition rate was about 10% per annum, although this tended to be higher in children’s social work, and the rate would have been distorted by the effect of the scale of redundancies in recent years. It was suggested that the Council should be more creative in allowing staff to reduce their hours and new staff to start on reduced hours – it was confirmed that there were arrangements in place for flexible retirement. Members commented that the Risk Register was still too general and did not do enough to put financial values against the risks.