Agenda item

Minutes:

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In presenting the report, the Internal Audit Manager explained that she had carried out an assessment of the Internal Audit function against the Public Sector Internal Audit Standards (PSIAS) to highlight any areas where improvements may be required.  The exercise was necessary for the Internal Audit Manager to determine how much reliance can be placed on the assurances coming from the function, which will be used to determine the annual opinion on the Governance, Risk Management and Control at the Council.

 

The Internal Audit Manager outlined the key issues, current position and any suggested improvements in the report circulated with the Agenda.

 

The Internal Audit Manager explained that the identified areas would continue to be evaluated and risk assessed and if it became apparent it was necessary to undertake  work on a specific area, a report would be presented to the Audit Committee.

 

With regard to Follow Up Audits, the Internal Audit Manager explained that currently the committee did not receive information on outstanding recommendations/deadlines, therefore going forward a paper would be presented to each meeting of the committee highlighting any action required.

 

The Internal Audit Manager/Financial Services Manager responded to questions in relation to:

 

·         ICT Wireless Networks – it was explained that a review of network security should be rescheduled with dedicated IT resources.  The committee was informed that the council would need to obtain specialist IT skills and the available options were outlined to provide the council with assurance in relation to IT risks. 

·         Asset Register – it was explained that the audit had been deferred to 2022/2023 following a discussion with Management Team.  It was noted that work had been undertaken with Finance and Property Services and were currently looking at a revised approach for the 2020/2021 Statement of Accounts.

·         Importance of keeping Internal Plan together to understand how it related to the corporate risk register.  It was explained that this was work in progress.

·         Appendix 2 – follow up audits being all graded as substantial.  It was explained that the appendix represented audits which had outstanding recommendations.

·         Gradings/assurance given when completing an audit.  It was noted that a review was currently being undertaken.

·         Number of days allocated to Alive West Norfolk, comparison of tables in this report and the internal audit half year progress report.

 

Councillor Morley stated with regard to the summary of recommendations 5 and 6 he would like to see a separate paper and early as possible prior to the 2022/2023 financial year what the risk profile looked like.  In response, the Internal Audit Manager provided an overview on how the corporate risk register would feed into the internal audit plan and if required build in improvements which would be a separate piece of work to be undertaken.

 

Councillor Collingham commented that it would be useful for the Committee to be presented with a summary which contained information on what the whole process entailed what it sought to achieve and headline information.

 

The Chair thanked the Internal Audit Manager for presenting the report.

 

RESOLVED:  The Audit Committee considered the findings within the attached report and endorsed the improvements where appropriate.

 

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