Issue - meetings

That the new format and level of information provided in the report be accepted subject to further ongoing review.

The Internal Audit Manager introduced a report to present the proposed new format for the Internal Audit progress report.

Following previous discussion on changes to the format and content of reports, the Internal Audit Manager presented an example single report comprising five sections to replace the two reports previously received for ‘Operational Plan and Recommendation Tracking’ and ‘Final Reports and Performance Indicators’.  He explained that the example report contained information submitted to the previous meeting of the Committee and sought Members’ views on the new layout.  He added that this would be subject to change and that he had received comments from some Members prior to the meeting.

On the reporting of final audit reports, Councillor R.B. Jones said that comments on the findings had improved but felt that the ‘manager responsible’ column should be reinstated.

Mr P.D. Williams shared this view and also suggested that comments from auditors be included to show whether the management comments were acceptable or still outstanding.

Following a query by the Chair on the type of audit identified on the Operational Plan, the Internal Audit Manager explained that ‘advisory’ meant that the audit had come out of the planning meetings with Directors and Heads of Service.  Councillor Jones suggested that the type of audit could be defined in the document and that column titles should be repeated where the table continued on to the next page.  The Chief Executive said that a ‘risk’ type indicated a requirement for the audit to be done and that ‘advisory’ had been undertaken on request.

On Recommendation Tracking, Mr. Williams said it would be useful to include the issue date and proposed implementation date to show the timeline.  The Internal Audit Manager explained that this would be difficult as the date of the final report could include several recommendations, each with a different implementation date.  A column and footnote indicating auditors’ comments on areas of concern arising from non-implementation would be included to provide a stronger steer for the Committee to look at.  In response to a further comment by Councillor Jones on the inclusion of reference numbers of reports, the Internal Audit Manager agreed that these would be reinstated.

The Head of Finance welcomed the improvements made to future reports and thanked the Internal Audit Manager and the Committee for their joint efforts in achieving this.

The Chair suggested that the recommendation in the report be amended to reflect further ongoing review of reports and the Internal Audit Manager said that Members’ comments received to date would be taken on board.

RESOLVED:

That the new format and level of information provided in the report be accepted subject to further ongoing review.