Agenda item

To receive the Internal Audit updates from SWAP.

Becky Brook, Principal Auditor, SWAP, presented the internal audit update report, which started at page 25 of the agenda pack and would be taken as read.

Headlines included that SWAP were reporting 5 limited assurance audits, these were:

·       Landlord compliance fire safety – general fund assets, this was also a significant corporate risk to the organisation, and SWAP would work with the service until there was improvement.

·       Procurement processes

·       Accounts payable – post Oracle go live

·       Accounts receivable – post Oracle go live, and

·       Main accounting – post Oracle go live

Details on these limited assurance audits could be found at pages 33 – 37 of the agenda pack.

There was no update on the ICT Network Boundary Defences audit previously reported to the Committee, but SWAP would continue to monitor progress and bring any relevant updates to future meetings.

Internal audit coverage by strategic risk was detailed at page 27. There was no coverage for the Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND) risk, so SWAP were working with Directors to see where assessment would be most useful.

Implementation of management actions were detailed at page 30. There were now only 3 overdue actions, which had decreased from 9 in July. It was noted that this did not include actions where dates had been revised. SWAP were working with managers to make sure they considered everything relevant which may affect deadline dates.

It was noted that the 5 limited assurance audits all had their own separate agenda items later in the agenda and therefore questions on those would be taken within those agenda items.

Members queried managers revising deadline dates for management actions and why this occurred. It was stated that managers needed to be mindful when setting dates and ensure that they had considered everything. For example, if there were longer term projects as part of the action plan, these needed to be taken into consideration.

Lizzie Watkin, Director of Finance & Procurement (S151 Officer), stated that there may be some optimism bias when setting deadlines which managers then failed to realise. However, it was not thought that there were systemic issues. Officers would take this away for any management actions which had seen slippage. It was highlighted that SWAP kept a watchful eye on this and would challenge the position to push dates back, as well as reporting any concerns to the S151 officer.

Coverage of strategic risks was discussed further. Members were uneasy about the lack of coverage for the SEND and Climate Impacts risks. SWAP stated that these were strategic risks as assessed by Wiltshire Council and details were available in the papers for Cabinet. In relation to the lack of internal audit coverage, timing came into it. The Climate Impact risk was not above appetite on the risk register. SWAP met with the Director of Finance and Procurement (S151) and the Director Legal and Governance regularly to talk through potential work to mitigate risk. 

Lizzie Watkin explained that with regards to the SEND risk that the council had signed up to the Safety Valve agreement so there had been lots of work and scrutiny in that space. Discussions were being had on the correct time to bring in internal audit. It was a challenge and would be ongoing. It was hoped that they could get some coverage from internal audit in the next year or so which would bring value.

Perry Holmes, Director Legal and Governance, stated that all the risks on the strategic risk register were being treated. There were two-way discussions with SWAP regarding that. All risks had been reassessed under the new risk management framework, and risk was reported on quarterly to Cabinet. The Committee were correct to query the internal audit coverage on these risks, however it was a matter for SWAP how they used their resources.

Members discussed this issue further and stated that in future it would be useful to have some context or some of the rationale as to why SWAP did not look at certain areas.

It was clarified that for the landlord compliance fire safety audit, it related to the general fund asset, so this was for anything council owned that was not housing.

On the proposal of the Chairman, seconded by Cllr Gavin Grant, it was,

Resolved:

To note the internal audit update from SWAP.