Agenda item

ANNUAL INTERNAL AUDIT PLAN 2021-22 AND INTERNAL AUDIT CHARTER

Minutes:

FSD 21013

 

The Internal Audit Plan had been affected by the Covid pandemic. It was difficult to know going forward what would be the ‘new normal’. This being the case, the Internal Audit Plan was more of a ‘statement of intent’. The Internal Audit Team would need to be flexible and agile. The current recovery audit plan had been affected by the Covid lockdown because staff had been seconded to work on pandemic related duties and other staff were providing assurance and anti fraud checks on business support grants. The Head of Audit and Assurance explained that the Internal Audit Plan had gone for review to the Corporate Leadership Team (CLT) and that the CLT had approved the plan. Some work was being rolled forward and the Internal Audit Team had been  looking at new areas of risk with CLT. More government grant relief money was due to come in and this would need to be processed and assurance provided to government.

 

The Head of Internal Audit and Assurance updated members regarding the Internal Audit Charter, explaining that the Charter outlined the status and authority of internal audit. There had on this occasion been some specific guidance provided with respect to the contents of the Charter which made allowances for the pandemic.

 

A Member enquired as to how much work undertaken by the Audit Team had been related to the Covid Pandemic, and how much resource was likely to be allocated to Covid related work going forward. The Head of Audit and Assurance did not have the information to hand and estimated that over the previous year 60% of the work undertaken by the Audit Team had been Covid related. He said that he would check on this figure and update the Committee. Going forward, out of 881 planned audit days, it was estimated that 145 days would be taken up by work that was Covid related. It was hoped that the Team would be working on ‘business as usual’ by June. The Head of Audit and Assurance complimented the work that had been undertaken by Liberata’s Technology Team in designing appropriate systems. 

 

The Vice Chairman asked (given the extra workload) if the current staffing levels of the Internal Audit Team were sufficient. The Head of Audit and Assurance answered that the Internal Audit Team were coping for now, but the position on a long term basis was not sustainable.

 

It was noted that the services of Mazars had not been called upon in the last financial year. They had their own core contracts with councils that did not have their own internal audit staff. The Head of Audit and Assurance clarified that he had a budget of approximately £16k that could be used as required to support the Internal Audit Team, and that he had been in discussions with Mazars about the possibility of them undertaking 2 pieces of work for LBB.

 

A Member  agreed that the Internal Audit Team should use the concept of ‘risk’ to decide where to allocate the limited resources of the Internal Audit Team. He inquired if the team had received enough training to carry out risk assessments themselves, or whether or not this would be undertaken by management in their particular area of expertise.

 

The Head of Internal Audit and Assurance explained that his team were professionally qualified. He mentioned that certain organisations like the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors, and the London Audit Group had set up online training sessions which explained how to manage risk during the pandemic. It was always the case that training and development could be enhanced as part of ongoing professional development. Internal Audit endeavoured to make things easier for managers by clearly addressing risks concerning fraud and error in core guidance documents.

 

Members were reminded of the previous occasion when the expertise of Zurich was called upon and they had assisted in the development of the Council’s risk register. This had generally improved the process for assessing risks across the board and, for example, it was now the case that Bromley Council had a good health and safety risk assessment process in place when previously there had been adverse internal audit findings.  Previously, business continuity plans had required developing, and in a previous report, two P1 recommendations had been issued. However, it was now the case that  adequate measures and protocols had been put in place, and these had been implemented prior to the onset of the pandemic. 

 

RESOLVED that: 

 

1)  The Head of Audit and Assurance check how much of the Internal Audit Team’s work in the previous year had been Covid related

 

2)  The 2021/22 Internal Audit Plan be approved.

 

3)  The Internal Audit Charter be approved.

Supporting documents: