Agenda item

That the report be noted.

The Head of Finance introduced the report on the outcome of the Wales Audit Office (WAO) annual assessment of Internal Audit.  She confirmed that contractual arrangements with RSM Tenon Plc had concluded at the end of May 2013 and that the Internal Audit Manager was now an employee of the Council.  The Chair took the opportunity to congratulate the Internal Audit Manager.

The Internal Audit Manager gave an overview of the report, explaining that Internal Audit had been fully compliant with nine of the eleven standards and partly compliant with the other two.  Recommendations had been made on these two areas which related to staffing, training and continuous professional development and performance, quality and effectiveness.  The Internal Audit Manager said that this would be the last assessment carried out against the current set of Chartered Institute of Public Finance Accountancy (CIPFA) standards.

Mr. J. Herniman of Wales Audit Office (WAO) remarked that the new standards would involve a more rigorous process and pointed out an error on paragraph 32 of the WAO report on the recording of work which should have referred to paragraphs 38-40 and not 40-41.

Mr. P. Williams asked if the Internal Audit function was sufficiently staffed to carry out work on the Plan.  Mr. Herniman said that the overall structure, if populated, would be sufficient.  In the event of any special investigations, he suggested that appropriate contingencies should be built-in to absorb the impact on core work.  On the second recommendation made by WAO, Mr. Williams asked if there were any points that the Audit Committee should be made aware of.  Mr. Herniman replied that there was no implied criticism and that these were process type issues which the Internal Audit Manager would take forward.

In response to queries raised by the Chair on the standard of Internal Audit files, Mr. Herniman said that this was generally satisfactory and that files should be well documented with a link to risks and reviews undertaken.  Although five files had been tested to draw a general conclusion, more detail would be required as part of the Quality Control Review under the new set of standards.

Councillor G.S. Banks referred to discussion at a previous meeting on an unfilled vacancy within Internal Audit.  The Internal Audit Manager explained that a successful candidate had withdrawn at a late stage and without a suitable replacement, the recruitment process would have needed to start afresh.  It had therefore been decided to appoint temporary workers during the year to deal with work on the 2013/14 Plan and to review the situation this year.  The major investigation had since commenced, presenting a further pressure, and additional resources had been brought in to help.

The Chief Executive spoke of the need to balance the scale of the Plan with the resources.

The Head of Finance remarked that seeking to manage resources and balancing risk was a key feature of discussions with the Internal Audit Manager.  She spoke of the nature of audit work being risk based, adding that the Committee had been supportive of the provision of extra resources, endorsed by Cabinet.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.