Agenda item

(Chief Internal Auditor) To consider the attached report (AGC-009-2016/17).

The Chief Internal Auditor presented the Internal Audit Monitoring Report for the period June to September 2016.

The Chief Internal Auditor advised the Committee that 3 reports had been issued since the previous meeting, of which 2 had been given Substantial Assurance – Langston Road Development and Conflicts of Interest and Gifts & Hospitality – and one had been given Limited Assurance – Health & Safety at Townmead Depot. The audit at the Depot had identified a number of significant health & safety issues for staff and customers, but Management were currently taking appropriate action.

The Chief Internal Auditor reported that the Recommendation Tracker contained seven recommendations which had passed their due date; five of which were priority two and two were priority three. Monitoring had demonstrated that progress continued to be made on all of these outstanding recommendations. The only priority one recommendation on the Tracker related to the Health & Safety issues at Townmead Depot, which was not currently overdue.

The Chief Internal Auditor stated that the Corporate Fraud Team had stopped a further three fraudulent Right-to-Buy applications and had recovered another property as a result of fraud. The team was engaged in a number of criminal investigations, including an active money laundering investigation linked to a Right-to-Buy application. Anti-fraud training had been provided to Harlow District Council through the shared Internal Audit Service, and the Team had participated in a Radio 4 documentary on Right-to-Buy fraud.

The Chief Internal Auditor added that the Service was also represented on a number of business groups and project teams to provide advice and guidance, including:

·        Project & Programme Management;

·        Electronic Invoicing;

·        Customer Self Service Kiosks; and

·        Information Management.

In relation to the Langston Road Development, the Director of Resources explained that the Council had had external Project Managers and Quantity Surveyors involved in the tender evaluation process, and there had not been a huge difference in the financial bids received for the main construction contract. For Phase I of the Council Housebuilding Programme, the lowest tender received did not allow for potential problems or groundworks which the other tenders did, and the company concerned was relatively small for a project of this size. The Chief Internal Auditor added that the Langston Road Development and the Council Housebuilding Programme were two separate projects and there had not been much cross-cutting learning. The Committee raised concerns about the number of different consultants doing different roles for the Langston Road Development; not only was this complex to manage but the different consultants had to work in the best interest of the Council.

The Committee welcomed the intervention of the Internal Audit team at Townmead Depot and requested an update on the situation at the next meeting showing significant progress. The Chairman also commented that the Recommendation Tracker was showing too many actions as ‘overdue’ with too many revised dates. It gave the impression that nothing was ever achieved, and the Chairman suggested that Officers should be requested to provide an explanation to the Committee if a Recommendation had had more than one revised date. The Chief Internal Auditor expressed her support for this idea, and the Committee agreed to implement it in future.

Resolved:

(1)        That the progress made both against the 2016/17 Internal Audit Plan and by the Corporate Fraud Team be noted;

(2)        That an update report on progress with the Health & Safety issues at Townmead Depot be submitted to the next meeting for the Committee to consider; and

(3)        That Officers be requested to attend and provide explanations to the Committee for any audit recommendations listed on the Recommendation Tracker with more than one revised date of implementation.