Agenda item

Internal Audit Plan 2021/22

Minutes:

The Committee considered a report which set out the proposed Annual Internal Audit Plan for 2021/22, which had been produced following a review of the risk management, controls and governance risks across the Council (including partnership activities). The report set out the planned work to be undertaken during 2021/2022 and allocation of available resources to deliver the Plan.  The Plan also highlighted separately for the first time in line with latest guidance, the Counter Fraud work planned to be delivered by the team.

 

The Head of Internal Audit highlighted key aspects of the Plan.  It was reported that the Internal Audit Team would continue to provide flexibility to accommodate unplanned work. In terms of the sufficiency of levels of resources available to the Internal Audit team, the Head of Internal Audit confirmed that at this point he was confident in being able to provide an annual audit opinion at the end of the year.

 

Members raised a few queries, in particular, regarding the current working conditions and work pressures on the Internal Audit team in delivering its work programme due to additional work been placed on the team due to the Covid-19 situation over the past year given this was to continue for some time yet.  The Head of Internal Audit reported that some of the audits were more difficult and time consuming to carry out therefore, additional time had been allocated for these audits. It was envisaged that new ways of working for the Internal Audit team as a consequence of Covid-19 would continue with for example, some meetings continuing to be held virtually.

 

A Member asked whether there was any IT software which could make the work of Internal Audit more efficient. The Head of Internal Audit advised that they had used market leading software for nearly 20 years to ensure they were working efficiently and effectively.

 

A Member asked the External Auditor whether they could suggest any areas for improvement in the Internal Audit team to assist them in their work. Gareth Mills commented that Grant Thornton was currently using a new software system called ‘Inflow’ across all of its audits for both the commercial and public sector which allowed secure data sharing and provided a greater degree of interrogation of data.  He could not however provide information regarding the potential costs of the software, but was happy to meet with the Head of Internal Audit to discuss this matter outside of the meeting.  The Head of Internal Audit made reference to the Counter Fraud Plan, as set out at Appendix C to the report which set out some of the development work that has been carried out by the Internal Audit team during the past years, but was to be further developed in relation to data analytics. The Head of Internal Audit welcomed the opportunity to meet with the External Auditors to explore whether there were ways to integrate Internal Audit and External Auditors sets of data and whether any efficiencies could be made in order to get best synergy out of the assurance from both Auditors.

 

The Assistant Director of Finance reported on the Council’s overall approach to making efficiencies across the Council and spoke of the work currently being undertaken by ICT, Human Resources and the Assets team on providing a framework for developing and implementing blended working across the Council. It was anticipated that a survey was to be sent to all managers to feedback on the future needs of the Civic building in terms of technology, and future ways of working in terms of how the Council can become more efficient with improvements to service delivery. The Internal Audit team was currently reviewing the needs of their service which would feed into this process.

 

RESOLVED that the Audit Committee:-

 

(1)      the principles and strategy underpinning the 2021/22 Internal Audit Plan as set out in Section 1 and expanded upon in Section 7 of the Internal Audit Plan report, be supported; and

 

(2)      the Plan at Appendix A of the report, noting the necessity for future and ongoing reviews of the Plan whenever it is appropriate to do, be supported.

 

Supporting documents: