Agenda item

The report sets out the Draft Internal Audit Strategy and Plan for 2017/18 and the basis on which the Plan has been formulated.  The Internal Audit Charter has been appended to the report for consideration and approval.

Vanessa Bateman (the Council’s Interim Head of Audit and Investigation) introduced the Draft Audit Strategy, which highlighted that the audit-related environment was constantly changing in response to the challenges faced by the Council. She emphasised that the Strategy set the key drivers in terms of flexibility of the service to ensure it could deliver effectively and better support the Council to achieve its objectives. It also outlined responsiveness to maximise outcomes through innovative resource use including technology, and linking with other sources of assurance. Ms Bateman explained that in developing the Strategy, she had considered the messages from management she had received and acknowledged the decision to return to in-house service and all the factors that had led to that decision.

Ms Bateman also introduced the Audit Plan for 2017-2018 and informed the Committee that the Plan had been developed using an assurance mapping process that had engaged senior management. Ms Bateman said that the Plan had acknowledged the need for the in-house service to be configured to deliver it and accounted for budgetary limitations. The Committee was informed that focused planning meetings had been undertaken for much of the Plan but these would commence once the Plan had been formally agreed, with the first audits being provisionally scheduled for April 2017.  

In relation to Corporate Reviews, Ms Bateman explained that the Team would look at the corporate controls over risk areas but also consider the application in a sample of services as there had been a number of service level audits where the Council Management Team (CMT) had expressed an interest and engagement would be ensured by regular attendance at CMT with a forward look at the Plan.  In terms of Schools’ audit, Ms Bateman acknowledged that this was an area where the Committee had expressed concern so additional resources had been allocated and areas that required improvement had been identified.  The Committee heard that Brent Housing Partnership (BHP) audits had been agreed by the BHP Audit Committee and provisions had been made in the Plan to accommodate the potential transfer of BHP back in-house.

Ms Bateman presented the Internal Audit Charter and highlighted that it helped the organisation understand the role of the audit service. She also noted that the Charter was a key governance document for Public Sector Internal Audit Standards.

Members of the Committee asked questions that related to audit in schools and blue badge fraud. In response, Ms Bateman explained that in relation to former, it was possible to learn from current practice and apply knowledge in other schools. She said that blue badge fraud was part of the pro-active fraud work and that the Internal Audit Team would be looking at how Parking approached it and whether it fully utilised the resource of the Team. The Committee heard that the blue badge process had been audited and work had been done in internal investigation, the report from which was being finalised. Conrad Hall (The Council’s Chief Finance Officer) added that it was possible to audit the effectiveness of the contract for parking wardens.

A Member of the Committee enquired whether the debt collection process could be looked at as residents from their ward had complained about debt collectors being rude and aggressive when they had been approached by residents wishing to settle their debt. Mr Hall advised Members to forward him specific cases so they could be examined if they fell in the remit of audit rather than scrutiny.

Mr Sullivan (Independent Member) acknowledged that the resources available to the Team were constrained and recommended that items on the Plan had to be prioritised. Ms Bateman clarified that work would start on items proposed to be examined during the first quarter of the financial year and further prioritisation could be implementedat a later stage if necessary.

In relation to the new rules that related to the employment of agency workers (whether they were self-employed or employed), Mr Sullivan advised the Committee that Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) had designed a tool to assess their status and Ms Bateman said that there was a risk to the Council if it was not able to recruit for some roles as a result of these regulations.

RESOLVED that:

(i)            The contents of 2017-2018 Audit Strategy be approved;

(ii)          The approach taken to formulate the draft Plan for the 2017-2018 financial year be noted;

(iii)         The Draft Plan for the 2017-2018 financial year be approved; and

(iv)         The Council’s Internal Audit Charter be approved.