Agenda item

The Head of Internal Audit presented a report proposing changes to the Council’s Anti-Fraud, Bribery and Corruption Framework to comply with a new Counter Fraud Strategy that had been launched for Local Government, and provided an overview of the counter fraud function for Doncaster.

It was noted that many of the proposed revisions to the Anti-Fraud, Bribery and Corruption Framework were cosmetic or changes in terminology, to provide consistency with the new Counter Fraud Strategy.  However, new text had been added to the Prosecutions and Sanction Policy to explain how decisions as to whether or not to prosecute an offence were made. 

A Member in welcoming the report, commented that it was helpful to see the risk assessment of Counter Fraud mapped out in terms of how the Council would review the controls in each area.  She observed that Cyber Fraud had been assessed as a critical risk to the Authority, however queried why the heat map setting out the fraud risks and level of exposure to the Council, as appended to the report had assessed the likelihood of this risk as ‘unlikely’. The Head of Internal Audit explained that in the event of a fraud attack, Cyber Fraud had been assessed as critical in terms of its impact on the Council.  In relation to the reason that cyber fraud had been assessed as unlikely, explained that the risk had been based on the arrangements the Council have put in place. An audit needs assessment had been carried out by the Council’s IT audit providers who had provided a reasonable level of assurance in relation to what they expected to see in place for the Council.  It was further reported that work was currently taking place in relation to business continuity of the Council in the event of a cyber-attack.

A Member referred to counter fraud activity in respect of employees working whilst off sick and bank mandates where it was noted that there was currently particularly high activity in this area and asked whether these issues had been identified as risks to the Council. The Head of Internal Audit indicated that both risks may have been subsumed within other risks, but he could not confirm that this was the case.  It was subsequently agreed that the Head of Audit provide confirmation to the Committee in the next Action Log report.

The Chair suggested that it would be beneficial for Audit Committee Members to attend training in the future so they could gain a better understanding of fraud arrangements. The Head of Internal Audit advised that the Counter Fraud Plan did provide for Audit Committee Members to receive training in order to have an oversight of the Council’s Counter Fraud arrangements and agreed that it was timely to provide refresher training for Members.

RESOLVED that the Audit Committee support the Council’s Counter Fraud activity report for 2021/2 and approve:-

(i)        the Fighting Fraud and Corruption Locally Self-Assessment;

(ii)       the changes to the Anti-Fraud, Bribery and Corruption Framework;

(iii)      the Counter Fraud Plan and the assurance map which maps all the proposed activities to fraud risks; and

(iv)      that arrangements be put in place for future refresher training for Audit Committee Members on the Councils Counter Fraud arrangements.