Issue - meetings

That the work of Internal Audit, actions taken to rectify the issues and the subsequent improvements made in the service be noted.

Councillor Glyn Banks left the room prior to consideration of this item as he had declared a personal and prejudicial interest.

The Internal Audit Manager introduced the initial and follow-up audit reports relating to the Empty Homes Scheme and reassured the Committee that a significant amount of activity had been undertaken by the Head of Housing and her team to address the issues raised.

The Head of Housing provided explanation on the investigation by Internal Audit into fraudulent activity leading to a number of recommendations.  Whilst expressing her deep concern about the issues raised within the report, she said that the fraudulent activity could not have been anticipated and had been investigated promptly, with actions taken to implement the recommendations.  A further review had established good progress with implementing the recommendations and had resulted in some improvements to the Empty Homes Scheme service.  Although the Empty Homes Scheme was part of the broader service area of Disabled Facilities Grants, no similar weaknesses had been identified in that area.

As Chairman of the Housing Overview & Scrutiny Committee, Councillor Ron Hampson praised the work undertaken by the Head of Housing and said that this had been a difficult situation which appeared to have been dealt with thoroughly.

Councillor Tim Newhouse requested the contact details of the new employee who had taken responsibility for the Empty Homes Scheme and said that all Members should be given notification of such changes in key personnel.  The Head of Legal & Democratic Services agreed to liaise with the Head of ICT & Customer Services to put in place an automatic response to emails sent to closed accounts of ex-employees.

The Head of Housing responded to a number of questions about the issues identified in the report and those involved.

Mr. John Herniman of the Wales Audit Office said that despite the sums of money involved being small in comparison, this demonstrated the importance of establishing controls.  The Internal Audit Manager drew attention to the recommendations in the audit report, which included provision for a review of the application form to include a checklist of safeguards together with other controls in relation to the setting up of payments.

The Chair thanked the Head of Housing for attending the meeting and for the actions put in place.

RESOLVED:

That the work of Internal Audit, actions taken to rectify the issues and the subsequent improvements made in the service be noted.