Agenda item

The Head of Assurance presented a report on the Draft Internal Audit Charter, Strategy and Plan for 2019/20, which were presented to the Committee for approval. The Internal Audit Charter defined the purpose, activity and responsibility of internal audit activity, the Internal Audit Strategy detailed how the Council was going to deliver the internal audit service and the Internal Audit Plan 2019/20 had been developed in line with the Charter and Strategy.

In response to questions, the Head of Assurance stated that the process for selecting particular items for inclusion in the Internal Audit Plan was very much a managed process, involving liaison with all stakeholders of the internal audit service, including the Council’s directors, to ensure the Plan was on the right track in light of emerging areas of risk and new legislation. He also undertook a horizon scanning exercise with colleagues from other local authorities and liaised with industry experts such as PWC and Mazars. In addition, there were areas of audit that had been agreed by this Committee which were included in the Plan. Furthermore, discussions with the Council’s external auditor, BDO, ensured that the Internal Audit Plan met their expectations and there were not any gaps. There were a number of days contingency which meant that any further risk areas identified could be addressed during the year.

The Independent Advisor to the Committee suggested that it would potentially be helpful if a brief explanation could be added to the table in section four of Appendix 3 of the report, as to why the particular item has been included in the Plan, for the Committee to understand how it had been compiled. The Head of Assurance stated that he would be happy to provide this.

In response to a question, the Head of Assurance stated that Internal Audit’s scope included reviewing risk within Council-owned companies such as BeFirst. BeFirst had a shareholder panel which would have oversight of the company’s risk management plan. The Chief Operating Officer stated that whilst the Council’s internal audit service would audit the processes BeFirst delivered on the Council’s behalf, BeFirst were responsible in their own right to ensure they carried out their policies and procedures correctly, and for this they had their own audit committee.  In response to the Committee’s request she stated that she would be happy to request a briefing from the Council’s shareholder panel, outlining how they reviewed the risks recognised by BeFirst for the next appropriate meeting of this Committee.

In response to a question, the Chief Operating Officer started that the budget supporting the Internal Audit Plan had not changed for the last couple of years. The budget was not only for council staff but also for the contracts with BDO and Mazarz. The number of days allocated to carry out the Plan was what drove the budget and the service always tried to keep to the budget as far as possible. She was happy to share copy of the budget with members.

The Committee approved:

(i)  The draft Internal Audit Charter;

(ii)  The draft Internal Audit Strategy 2019/20 onwards; and

(iii)  The draft Internal Audit Plan 2019/20.