Agenda item

(a)       That the report be accepted;

(b)       That the Internal Audit Manager provide a note to the Committee on the number of occasions in recent years where the allocated number of investigation days had been exceeded;

(c)        That the appropriate level of senior officer from the Lifelong Learning Directorate be invited to attend a future meeting of the Committee to discuss the significant failings raised on school funding arrangements; and

(d)       That where Internal Audit recommendations had not been implemented, particularly on fundamental areas of risk, future Internal Audit Progress Reports to include a brief summary on the area of risk, responsible manager and reason for non-implementation and whether this was acceptable.

The Internal Audit Manager presented a progress update report of the Internal Audit department.

Audit Plan and Resources

It had been reported at the previous meeting that the allocated 200 days used for investigations for the whole of the year would be exceeded due to a major investigation being undertaken.  The Committee had therefore proposed that additional resources be sought to complete work within the Audit Plan.  The Internal Audit Manager reported that this had been agreed by Cabinet and that additional resources were being sought to start in January 2013.

In response to questions from Councillor I.B. Roberts, the Internal Audit Manager said that to date, 347 investigation days had been used for this year and that the additional resources being sought would be sufficient to enable him to provide his annual audit opinion and would be kept under review.  He was unable to estimate a completion date for the major investigation taking place as this was still ongoing.  The Chief Executive said that some catch-up work would be required due to the time taken for the additional resources to be brought in.

Councillor Roberts commented on available resources from RSM Tenon Plc to support Internal Audit.  The Head of Finance thanked the Committee for proposing the allocation of additional resources and was satisfied with what could be achieved from that.  She said it was intended to complete the Plan in a risk managed approach by seeking additional resources through RSM Tenon Plc and other external agencies as necessary to achieve the required level of resource.

The Internal Audit Manager agreed to provide a note to the Committee in response to Councillor Roberts’ question on how many times the allocated investigation days had been exceeded in recent years.

Following a request by the Chair, the Head of ICT & Customer Services provided clarification on current projects on IT procurement and electronic document management.

Final Reports

On school funds, the Internal Audit Manager explained that no previous audit had been undertaken as these were not Council assets, however following a recent investigation, an audit had been carried out on a sample of schools, resulting in nine significant recommendations highlighting the need for improved guidance and monitoring.  Responding to a query by Mr. P. Williams, he explained that in this case, the Lifelong Learning Directorate would be expected to implement the recommendations made by Internal Audit by the timelines indicated.

Mr. P. Green remarked that this issue was about reputation.  Ms. A. Hughes said that auditing the funds was outside the Council’s remit but that it would be appropriate to ensure that funds were used in the correct way as the Council had a duty of care to individuals who had contributed to the funds.

Whilst Councillor Roberts did not wish to impose restrictions on the use of school funds, he felt that a control framework was needed and that this could be considered by a formal reporting mechanism such as the Lifelong Learning Overview & Scrutiny Committee.  The Chair referred to the recommendation for further guidance to be given to schools on using funds for legitimate purposes and the Internal Audit Manager said that this was a problem as no guidance was in place.  The Chair proposed that Lifelong Learning officers could be invited to a future meeting of the Committee to provide guidance to address the significant failings raised on school funds.  The Chief Executive encouraged involvement by senior officers on specific items and felt that this was a legitimate issue to explore, suggesting that the item could be considered at the next meeting in January 2013.

Recommendation Tracking

The Internal Audit Manager outlined the previously agreed changes to the format of this report which was an improved way of monitoring recommendation tracking.  Mr. P. Williams felt that more detail was needed on recommendations which had not been implemented, particularly on fundamental areas of risk, and suggested that future reports include a brief paragraph explaining the area of risk, manager responsible and reason for non-implementation and whether this was acceptable.  Members spoke in support of this.  Mr. P. Green said that efforts had progressed in establishing a manageable system to highlight these areas to the Committee.  The Internal Audit Manager agreed that the next progress report would include the information suggested.

On the non-implementation of recommendations on the Capital Programme the Head of Finance reported that this had been due to a delay and gave assurance that these would be dealt with.  She added that this was the kind of detail which would be included in the revised report format.

Performance Indicators

The Internal Audit Manager reported that following discussion at the previous meeting, the number of days taken to return draft reports had reduced from 26 to 24.5 days.

RESOLVED:

(a)       That the report be accepted;

(b)       That the Internal Audit Manager provide a note to the Committee on the number of occasions in recent years where the allocated number of investigation days had been exceeded;

(c)        That the appropriate level of senior officer from the Lifelong Learning Directorate be invited to attend a future meeting of the Committee to discuss the significant failings raised on school funding arrangements; and

(d)       That where Internal Audit recommendations had not been implemented, particularly on fundamental areas of risk, future Internal Audit Progress Reports to include a brief summary on the area of risk, responsible manager and reason for non-implementation and whether this was acceptable.