Issue - meetings

(Chairman of the Audit and Governance Committee) To consider the attached report.

The Leader reported that the Anti-Fraud and Corruption Strategy had been reviewed and considered by the Audit and Governance Committee. The Strategy had incorporated amendments around the prevention of bribery introduced by the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and  strengthened anti-corruption elements in light of the new United Kingdom Anti-Corruption Strategy for 2017-2022.

RESOLVED:

That the Council’s revised Anti-Fraud and Corruption Strategy, as attached at Appendix 3 to these minutes be approved.

To consider the attached (AGC-010-2018/19).

The Committee considered the internal audit monitoring report for the period from September to November 2018, which updated members on work undertaken by the Internal Audit Shared Service and the Corporate Fraud Team since the previous meeting and detailed the current position in relation to overdue recommendations arising from internal audit activity.

The Chief Internal Auditor reported that she was currently encountering difficulties with regard to the delivery of the Audit Plan for 2018/19, as a result of resource and capacity issues within the Internal Audit Unit. The Committee was advised that specialist external support had been engaged to deliver elements of the Audit Plan, but that it was likely that the deferral of some audit activity into 2019/20 would need to be sought, for which criteria had been developed for consideration by the Committee, alongside the seeking of additional resources from the Cabinet to facilitate the delivery of the Audit Plan in full.

Members were advised that five audits had been completed since the last meeting of the Committee, four of which had received moderate assurance and one of which (St. John’s Road, Epping - Redevelopment) had received limited assurance. The Committee queried why the review of the governance arrangements and project management processes employed for the St. John’s Road project had raised concerns that did not appear to have arisen in relation to other similar projects supported by the Council, including the development of the Epping Forest Shopping Park. The Chief Internal Auditor advised members that the project management of the Epping Forest Shopping Park development had been outsourced to specialist external consultants, but that the St. John’s Road project had been managed by an in-house project management team and that a number of learning points had been identified from this arrangement. The Committee raised concern with regard to the findings of recent audit activity with regard to software licensing, which it considered to be unacceptable for an authority of the size of the Council and should be addressed as a matter of urgency. Members expressed disappointment that none of the recent audits had received substantial assurance, but were advised that there were no underlying themes behind the findings of each report, although the Chief Internal Auditor would keep this situation under review.

The Committee endorsed the need for additional resources to be directed to the activities of the Internal Audit Unit to support the achievement of the audit plan, particularly in view of the level of assurance awarded to recent areas of audit. The Chief Internal Auditor emphasised that the development of the annual Audit Plan was designed to reflect all of the Council’s high-risk priorities and that the plan retained flexibility to react to developing situations that might arise during the year.

The Chief Internal Auditor reminded the Committee that it received details of all overdue recommendations and high-priority recommendations arising from audit activity, as part of its regular review of the Internal Audit Recommendation Tracker. Members were advised that there were currently nine issues included  ...  view the full minutes text for item 31