Issue - meetings

That the sentence be retained in the Internal Audit Charter with an additional sentence ‘If such a call is made, the decision to allocate resources will be the Internal Audit Manager’s but that the S151 officer and Audit Committee Chair or Vice-Chair to be advised.

The Internal Audit Manager presented a report for the Committee to give consideration to a specific sentence within the Internal Audit Charter, as requested by the Constitution Committee.  He advised that the sentence related to the use of audit staff on non-audit work in emergency situations, and had been included in the Charter since 2002 although not acted upon.  He sought views from the Committee on whether the sentence should be deleted or remain, with or without additional wording to give clarification.

The Chair’s view was that the sentence should be retained with the additional suggested wording in Option 3 of the report.  Councillor Haydn Bateman proposed this with the wording changed to reflect that ‘if such a call is made, the decision to allocate resources will be the Internal Audit Manager’s but that the S151 officer and Audit Committee Chair or Vice-Chair to be advised’.

Following a suggestion from Councillor Glyn Banks to include the Monitoring Officer or Wales Audit Office in the approval process, the Chair said that a more balanced view was for this to be the responsibility of the Internal Audit Manager with the additional individuals included as a safeguard.

Councillor Arnold Woolley stated his preference for Option 1 to remove the sentence altogether, to which Councillor Tim Newhouse was in agreement.

Mr. Paul Williams favoured Options 1 or 3 and pointed out that although a situation had not arisen for the sentence to be brought to action, the increasing pressure on the Council and its resources may present a situation where the sentence could apply.  On being asked for his view, the Internal Audit Manager agreed with the options to delete or amend the sentence.

The Chair seconded the proposal from Councillor Bateman.  On being put to the vote, was carried by five votes for and two against.

RESOLVED:

That the sentence be retained in the Internal Audit Charter with an additional sentence ‘If such a call is made, the decision to allocate resources will be the Internal Audit Manager’s but that the S151 officer and Audit Committee Chair or Vice-Chair to be advised.