Agenda item

Peter Jackson, Head of Internal Audit presented a report which summarised the work of the Internal Audit team during the period July to September 2021. The report set out details of the planned audit work completed in the period which had not previously been reported and the level of management actions and revised implementation dates, which were appended to the report at Appendices A and B, respectively.

The Head of Internal Audit advised that the work of the Internal Audit team was returning back to normality, however he highlighted that there remained a lot of outstanding Covid related work that was being progressed. In summarising the key points in the report, the Head of Internal Audit highlighted in particular, two main areas of work relating to the North Bridge Stores Transformation Project which required additional work in supporting this area and Covid-19 Grants which had taken more time than anticipated.  He also referred to the overdue management actions, as set out in Section 3 of the report which showed a static position with regard to the number of overdue actions. Internal Audit had continued to work closely with management during this period to bring the actions forward. He highlighted that the main area of concern relating to regulation and enforcement around Trading Standards and Food Safety which remained a problem and that there was limited progress in this area.

Members were informed of the results of a Pulse Survey carried out in July 2021, which had provided reassurance and very positive feedback that the service was working well and was valued by its customers.

It was also reported that an External Quality Assessment review was currently being carried out in the form of a Peer Review by Dave Webster, the Head of Internal Audit at Rotherham Council, to assess the Internal Audit team’s compliance against the United Kingdom Public Sector Internal Audit (PSIA) Standards. Further to the request of the Chair, the Head of Internal Audit provided an update on progress on the review which was progressing well. Internal Audit had submitted a self-assessment questionnaire against its compliance against the standards that had been forwarded to the Head of Internal Audit at Rotherham. File reviews of work by the team were being undertaken and interviews being undertaken with key stakeholders, including the Assistant Director of Finance finishing with the Head of Internal Audit in mid-November. The outcome of the review would be reported at the Audit Committee meeting in January 2022. 

The Chair and Members welcomed Dave Webster who was in attendance to observe the meeting. Further to a question from the Chair, he confirmed that he was on track to complete the External Equality Assessment in January. The Chair pointed out that the membership of the Audit Committee had changed this year to previous years and that there were a number of new Members on the Committee. As a consequence of this, Member training had been tailored for both new Members and long standing Members of the Committee to take place prior to each meeting, to coincide with items for consideration at the next Committee meetings. The Head of Internal Audit at Rotherham confirmed that there had also been a change to the membership at Rotherham Council Audit Committee and that training was being tailored to agenda items at Audit Committee meetings.

The Head of Internal Audit in referring to Sections 4.10 and 4.11 of the report advised that presently there was sufficient coverage to be able to provide an annual opinion on risk, governance and control arrangements and confirmed that there was nothing to date that would result in a negative audit opinion over the risk, governance and control arrangements. He added that no items had been identified for inclusion in the Annual Governance Statement for consideration at the next meeting of the Committee in November 2021.

Councillor Dave Shaw in noting the revised timescales of 31 March 2022 for implementation of the high risk level overdue management actions in the Trading Standards and Food Safety department, expressed strong concerns regarding the limited progress being made and sought clarity as to the reasons why the agreed implementation dates were being extended further and was concerned whether the revised dates would be met in future. Councillor Shaw asked why there was no representation from Trading Standards at the meeting to explain the reasons for the delay given the seriousness and length of time taken to resolve the issues.

The Head of Internal advised that the Trading Standards and Food Safety team had only been able to carry out a limited amount of the enforcement aspect of their work due to being heavily involved in Covid-19 related work, and as a result had accumulated a large backlog of work which had created additional pressures for the team who were working extremely hard to clear the backlog. The Head of Audit gave assurances that recent discussions had been held with senior management and Internal Audit to progress this matter and it was anticipated that over the next few days an action plan was to be agreed with management in terms of how the issues were to be addressed and to determine whether the actions were achievable. This would be overseen by the Director of Economy and Environment in order to ensure that progress was made.

Members were informed that the Head of Regulation and Enforcement had been expected to attend this meeting, however the Head of Internal Audit was not aware of the reasons for the non-attendance. The Assistant Director of Finance assured the Committee that a more detailed update would be provided to Members at the January meeting and that the Head of Service of Regulation and Enforcement be asked to attend that meeting to provide assurance to the Committee.

The Committee welcomed the assurances provided by the Head of Internal Audit that the Internal Audit team were working with Officers to progress this issue, and looked forward to receiving an update in January and hoped to see a strategy in place to bring about change.

Further to a request from the Chair, the Head of Internal Audit updated Members on a new significant piece of work that had been added to the work plan in relation to the Suez Supplier Relief and Support. It was noted that work ongoing and it would be reported on at the meeting in January 2022.

In referring to the summary of findings of the Audit Reviews during the period, as set out at Appendix A of the report, the Chair was reassured to observe the substantial assurance that had been given in relation to Core Financial Processes, Benefits, particularly in view of benefits being a vital service especially, during the current climate.

RESOLVED that

(1)       the position of the Internal Audit Plan be noted;

(2)       the internal audit work completed in the period be noted;

(3)       the position with regards the implementation of  management actions arising from Internal Audit recommendations be noted; and

(4)       the current position regarding the ability to deliver the annual opinion over the councils risk, governance and control arrangements.