Issue - meetings

(a)       That the report be accepted;

(b)       That future progress reports be condensed to include details of overdue actions on only high and medium priority actions and any areas where valid reasons had not been provided for actions older than six months and overdue; and

(c)       That the amber/red reports on Alltami Stores and Highways Cost Recovery be referred to the Environment Overview & Scrutiny Committee.

The Internal Audit Manager presented the update on progress of the Internal Audit department.  She provided a brief overview of the three amber/red (some assurance) reports issued since the last meeting.

Attention was drawn to the significant number of actions outstanding, some of which may be due to Chief Officers failing to provide an update.  Due to the size of the overall report, the Committee was asked to consider whether to restrict the information to high or high/medium priority outstanding actions and to limit the actions that were six months overdue, many of which involved ongoing actions with mitigating circumstances.

As requested, the Committee’s concerns about delayed implementation of actions had been discussed with the two Chief Officers both of whom had provided commentary in the report.

Councillor Heesom highlighted the importance of the content of the report which he felt should have been prioritised on the agenda.  As Chairman of the Environment Overview & Scrutiny Committee, he said that the Alltami Stores report had not been raised.

The Internal Audit Manager also provided an update on resources in her team which had prompted a review of work in the Audit Plan to prioritise key areas of risk.  In response to a question from Councillor Woolley, she said that the shortfall in resources would be addressed through offering existing part-time team members the opportunity to extend their hours, with the option of engaging agency workers if required.  The Chief Officer (Governance) said that team resources were regularly reviewed and that if necessary, agency staff would supplement the proposed arrangement.

In recognition of the work needed to produce the information in the report, Sally Ellis proposed that the section on overdue actions focus on high-risk red and amber issues and that the amber/red report on Highways Cost Recovery be referred to the Environment Overview & Scrutiny Committee for monitoring.

Councillor Woolley spoke in support of retaining the same level of detail on actions overdue by six months from the original date.  The Chief Officer suggested that the report focus on any areas where valid reasons had not been provided to seek a view from the Committee.  This was supported.

RESOLVED:

(a)       That the report be accepted;

(b)       That future progress reports be condensed to include details of overdue actions on only high and medium priority actions and any areas where valid reasons had not been provided for actions older than six months and overdue; and

(c)       That the amber/red reports on Alltami Stores and Highways Cost Recovery be referred to the Environment Overview & Scrutiny Committee.