Issue - meetings

That the report be accepted.

In response to discussion at the previous meeting, the Internal Audit Manager presented a report to inform the Committee of items deferred from the Audit Plan over the past two years.

He explained the process of deferring items from the Plan and said that 22 audits had been deferred from the Plan in 2011/12 and 19 in 2010/11, most of which had been advisory with the remainder as risk-based.

Of the 22 audits deferred in the 2011/12 Plan, Councillor G.H. Bateman enquired about that for the Communities First Follow Up.  The Internal Audit Manager said that this had been deferred a year ago and would be carried forward to 2014/15.  The Chair asked for clarification on the comments column for this audit and it was explained that this related to the deferment of the audit as the Communities First scheme was nearing completion before a further scheme could be continued.

Following a query by Councillor R.B. Jones on the ‘In Plan for 2012/13’ column in the plan deferrals table, the Internal Audit Manager replied that a three year Strategic Plan was in place and that the target year for each audit was shown in brackets.  Councillor Jones questioned the clarity of the table and also referred to earlier discussion on Communities First.  The Internal Audit Manager said that this issue had only been raised recently and could be a possible change to the Plan.

Following a question by Councillor Bateman on a deferral from the 2010/11 Plan, the Internal Audit Manager explained that the CD27 Waste Management audit had been a Strategic Assessment of Risks & Challenges (SARC) risk-based review on recycling performance and was included in the 2012/13 Plan.  In response to a query from the Chair, he replied that the scope of the original HR Strategy Management audit had related to Service Plans and People Plans rather than staff appraisals.

Councillor Jones felt that the report was too complex and said that information was only needed on Plan items for the current year and where they had come from.  The Chair stated that work had been carried out to simplify information in the report which remained ‘work in progress’.  The Democracy & Governance Manager pointed out that the report had been produced in response to the Committee’s request for details of deferred items, following comments made in the Wales Audit Office report on Internal Audit received at the June 2012 meeting.  Councillor I.B. Roberts felt that the report gave clear information.  The Chair remarked that the report was the result of officers’ genuine attempts to respond to Members’ requests and that improvements would be continue to be made.

RESOLVED:

That the report be accepted.