Agenda item

The Head of Internal Audit presented a report which updated Members on the work undertaken by Internal Audit and opinions issued for the period July to October 2023.

The Head of Internal Audit clarified points raised by the Committee in relation to the number of overdue management actions and completed actions arising from the school audits/investigations.  It was noted that Internal Audit had agreed revised completion dates with management relating to the Place directorate that would not have an adverse impact on the service.

In respect of the Section 106 agreements review, the Head of Internal Audit advised that the review had concluded that the contract had been procured in accordance with the Council’s Contract Procedure Rules and value for money obtained. The review had identified that there were no unspent S.106 monies and Internal Audit had recommended that improvements should be made to the S.106 process. It was noted that a wider review of S106 monies was ongoing. 

In reviewing the overdue high-risk level and medium to low risk level management actions, Councillor Dave Shaw requested that in order for Members to be able to gain a better understanding of the information presented and for them to carry out a detailed critical analysis of the data, that in future an analysis be provided in relation to whether the risks identified for a particular period were new risks, or existing risks carried forward from the previous reporting period, as he felt that it was not apparent from the information provided at the table at paragraph 3.6 of the report. The Head of Internal Audit gave an undertaking to present the statistics to the Committee in a different way in the future, to highlight those that have been overdue in previous reporting. Following further questions, Members were assured that there were no concerns in terms of the overdue high-risk level management actions risks identified and that if any issues of concern did arise, these would be brought to the Committee’s attention. It was noted that Doncaster was in a good position compared to other local authorities in terms of the risks to the Council.

The Vice-Chair, in noting the reduction in the number of overdue management actions, requested that in future the Committee should be provided with a summary of the medium to low level risks in a simplified format to identify the issues, the original implementation date, projected implementation date and current implementation date. It was subsequently agreed that information continued to be presented in the current format in terms of the categories of risks and to be reviewed by the Committee at a later date in terms of whether the current information added any value, and how they wished for information to be presented in the future.

Due to the reduction in the number of overdue actions, the Vice-Chair asked whether a deeper analysis should be carried out next year in relation to the scope of the Audit to identify any problems, the Head of Internal Audit provided assurances that every action raised relating to high-risk matters were validated by the Internal Audit team as were medium to low actions and the number of low risks related to small numbers of overdue outstanding recommendations not yet been implemented. However, Internal Audit would continue to review risk-based audits as part of their work on the draft Audit Plan. Members would be given the opportunity to input into the process in terms of potential risks, prior to the draft Audit Plan being presented to the Committee in April next year. The External Auditor reinforced the comments made by the Head of Internal Audit that as part of Internal Audit’s work when reviewing the core internal controls of the Council, also looked at areas of potential risks for the Council.

In response to a further question from the Vice-Chair, the Head of Internal Audit confirmed that a second line risk assessment was carried out annually by managers in relation to risks and controls in their respective area, where each Head of Service had the opportunity to flag up any concerns or areas of weakness regarding governance, which may be considered for inclusion in the Annual Governance Statement. 

Following questions from the Chair, the Head of Internal Audit advised that a member of staff had been seconded to the senior Auditor position in the team and he hoped to appoint someone permanently to the post in future.  Resources were in place to look at data driven work and to build data capacity in the team. The Internal Audit team was working in partnership with other teams within the Council in terms of gathering data. In relation to the Head of Internal Audit’s Annual report, he was confident he would be able to give a positive opinion at the Committee’s meeting in April 2024.

To conclude, in terms of Internal Audits performance during the year, it was acknowledged that the Key Performance Indicators were good, and no new areas of concern had been identified as part of the Head of Internal Audits opinion. The Committee was assured that the risk, governance, and control arrangements were satisfactory.

RESOLVED to note:-

(1)    the position of the Internal Audit Plan;

(2)    the Internal Audit work completed in the period;

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

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