Agenda item

Report FSD17051

The Head of Audit presented the Internal Audit Progress Report which was intended to inform Members of recent audit activity across the Council and to provide updates on matters arising from the previous Audit Sub-Committee meetings.

The Sub-Committee noted the latest list of outstanding priority one recommendations attached at Appendix A of the report.  A Member suggested that in the interests of transparency, in future, all the reports with Priority 1 recommendations should be named in part 1 of the agenda.

In relation to the Priority 1 recommendation concerning St Paul’s Cray CE Primary School, the Head of Audit reported that a number of other issues had been picked up during the audit process which were being addressed.  The Sub-Committee was advised that the recommendation pertaining to cash handling at St Paul’s Cray CE Primary School remained open.

The Sub-Committee were informed that a school had received an overpayment of relief on NNDR (National Non Domestic Rates) of £103,499 as the date on which it converted to an Academy had been miscalculated. This money had now been reimbursed to the Council.

Members were updated concerning the liability of businesses to pay the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL). There had been two priority one recommendations made in the original audit relating to the identification of CIL liable cases and the need for spot checks. It had been estimated in the previous audit that 48 cases had been identified where CIL liability had not been recorded. The Committee was briefed that the number of original assessments for liability subsequently fell to 41 and 3 of these had made payments totalling £8,126. Another 14 cases had CIL liability orders issued, totalling £79,655.

There had been a priority 1 recommendation for management to run a report from UNIFORM to identify planning applications made since 1 April 2015 where CIL liability had not been assessed and recorded. This recommendation was now regarded as implemented.

There had been a second priority 1 recommendation regarding CIL spot check visits, and this was also regarded as implemented.

Members were provided with an update following the previous audit on the Learning Disabilities Service where there had been three priority one recommendations relating to Assessments, Care and Support Plans and Service Agreements. It was noted that the recommendation relating to Assessments remained outstanding. The recommendations concerning care and support plans and service level agreements would be looked it in a future audit.

Concerning document retention and storage, Members were reminded that previously there had been two priority one recommendations relating to contract monitoring, invoice checking, cumulative expenditure and also the requirement to undertake a comprehensive review of documents in storage. The former recommendation was considered to be implemented, whilst the latter recommendation was still open.  A Member stressed the need to ensure that the costs for retrieval and return were not a disincentive to review documents that were held in storage.  It was recognised that there would need to be a review of all the information held in storage in light of the new Data Protection legislation.

Members were updated concerning the audit of corporate waivers. It was still the aim to set up a fully audited corporate waiver register, possibly in an electronic form that would enhance the audit trail, and audit controls. This matter was ongoing and would be reported back to the Committee at the November meeting. 

There had been some slippage in meeting the targets of the 2016/2017 audit plan for a variety of reasons, and the Committee were informed of additional work that internal audit had undertaken outside of the audit plan.

Members were notified that 10 further internal audit reports had just been published, and this meant that 176 had been published to date.

Members approved the nomination of Deepali Choudhary, (Principal Auditor) as Auditor of the Year. This was for an outstanding piece of work in carrying out an audit of the Waste Contract, which was the biggest contract held by the Council.

The Head of Audit updated Members concerning the number of cases of suspected housing benefit fraud that had been referred by Bromley to the SFIS (Single Fraud Investigation Service). Members were still concerned at the lack of prosecutions undertaken by the SFIS, and had previously resolved to write to the DWP, expressing LBB’s concerns over this. This letter had not yet been written due to the snap general election, and new ministerial appointments that may be made. However, it was still the intention of the Sub-Committee that the latter be drafted.  The Chairman suggested that the concerns of the Sub-Committee surrounding delays in bringing prosecutions should also be included in the letter sent to the DWP.

The Sub-Committee were briefed that LBB were still successfully prosecuting for council tax support fraud.

In relation to training, the Head of Audit reported that there had been some problems with the link on the Bromley Learning Hub.  Once the problems had been remedied the training would be relaunched and advertised amongst staff.

RESOLVED: That

1. The progress report and matters arising be noted;

2. The Internal Audit report be noted;

3. The list of Internal Audit Reports publicised on the web be noted;

4. The nomination of Deepali Choudhary as Auditor of the Year be approved;

5. The latest cases referred to the DWP be noted;

6. The letter to the minister for the DWP to express LBB’s concerns at the lack of prosecution for housing benefit fraud should still be drafted; and

7. The update on risks, together with actions taken to improve the risk register be noted.