Issue - meetings

Noted.

The Principal Auditor gave a presentation on risk management and maintaining the internal control environment in respect of changes to services during the emergency period.  The presentation covered:

·         Pre-Coronavirus - context

·         Risk Management - current context

·         Three Lines of Defence - relevance

·         Internal Audit Response - thus far

·         Emergency Management Assurance (EMA)

·         Risk Method Statement Challenge Project

·         Internal Audit Response - future

Although the Audit Plan for 2020/21 had been prepared at the start of the year, a revised Plan would need to be shared in September to incorporate risks arising from the emergency period.  The presentation highlighted a number of key controls that were vital to the recovery process and required a different way of working.

In acknowledging the need for officers to respond to the crisis, the Internal Audit team had focussed on completing 2019/20 advisory and assurance work, along with the Annual Governance Statement.  The team had added value in a number of areas, including representation on the EMRT and the Test Trace and Protect scheme.  Audit work carried out for 2020/21 included the ‘5 Key Financial Decisions’ review which looked at the use of emergency reserves and care home capacity, concluding that strong controls were in place.  Audit work on the Emergency Management Assurance (EMA) mechanism provided assurance on support for the first line of defence and had been shared with Audit Wales.

The Chairman thanked the Chief Executive for sharing regular updates with Members on the Council’s response throughout the emergency period.

In praising the Council’s response and emergency arrangements, Sally Ellis said that that similar assurance would be required on recovery management as a potential area of risk.  The Chief Executive said that regular updates on the continuing response were reported to the Member Recovery Board and that open risks were recorded in the interim Recovery Strategy which was due to be finalised by September prior to the committee structure resuming.  On the consolidation of learning, senior officers were due to consider various outcomes including safe working practices and all Silver tactical groups would be preparing closing reports with recommendations for future implementation.  On the potential for an increase in fraud during the pandemic, officers gave examples of proactive work by Internal Audit in performing due diligence checks on grant eligibility.  In addition, work on the EMA indicated that finance systems working remotely during the period were unchanged and provided assurance on fraud prevention.

In response to a question from Allan Rainford, officers provided clarification on the key role of the Internal Audit Manager on the Rainbow Hospital project.  The Chief Executive gave a brief overview of the current position on the project.

Councillor Banks took the opportunity to commend the Chief Executive and Chief Officer team for their work in response to the pandemic.

The Chairman also commended the officers for the emergency response phase work.