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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Online Meeting

Contact: Tara Shannon  Senior Democratic Services Officer

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Items
No. Item

67.

Apologies

To receive any apologies or substitutions for the meeting.

Minutes:

Apologies were received from:

 

Cllr Mike Hewitt and Cllr Ian Thorn.

 

68.

Minutes of the Previous Meeting

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 18 November 2020.

 

 

Supporting documents:

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 18 November 2020 were presented for consideration and it was,

 

Resolved:

 

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 18 November 2020 as a correct record.

 

69.

Declarations of Interests

To receive any declarations of disclosable interests or dispensations granted by the Standards Committee.

 

Minutes:

The Chairman declared a non-pecuniary interest, stating that he was a Director at SWAP.

 

70.

Chairman's Announcements

To receive any announcements through the Chairman.

 

Minutes:

The Chairman announced that the Members annual meeting with SWAP would take place on the rising of the Audit and Governance Committee. Cllr Grant gave his apologies for that meeting.

 

71.

Public Participation

The Council welcomes contributions from members of the public. During the ongoing Covid-19 situation the Council is operating revised procedures and the public are able participate in meetings online after registering with the officer named on this agenda, and in accordance with the deadlines below.

Guidance on how to participate in this meeting online.

Statements

Members of the public who wish to submit a statement in relation to an item on this agenda should submit this is electronically to the officer named on this agenda no later than 5pm on Monday 8 February 2021 (1 clear working day before the meeting).

 

State whom the statement is from (including if representing another person or organisation), state points clearly and be readable aloud in approximately 3 minutes. Up to three speakers are allowed for each item on the agenda.

 

Questions

Those wishing to ask questions are required to give notice of any such questions electronically to the officer named on the front of this agenda no later than 5pm on Wednesday 3 February 2021 (4 clear working days before the meeting) in order to be guaranteed of a written response. In order to receive a verbal response questions must be submitted no later than 5pm on Friday 5 February 2021 (2 clear working days before the meeting).

 

Please contact the officer named on the front of this agenda for further advice. Questions may be asked without notice if the Chairman decides that the matter is urgent. Details of any questions received will be circulated to members prior to the meeting and made available at the meeting and on the Council’s website; they will be taken as read at the meeting.

 

Minutes:

No public questions or statements were received.

 

72.

Update on Statement of Accounts 2019/20

To receive an update report on the 2019/20 accounts.

 

To include an update on the resolution and qualification issues from the 2018/19 accounts.

 

Supporting documents:

Minutes:

Andy Brown, Interim Corporate Director of Resources (S151 Officer) gave an update to the committee on the 2019/20 accounts.

 

The officer stated that the statement of accounts 2019/20 had been due to be presented for approval at the meeting. However, it was explained that the statement of accounts 2019/20 were not ready to be brought before the committee. This was due to the outstanding resolution and qualification issues from the 2018/19 accounts, the limited technical capacity and experience of resources within the council at the time and the difficulties in progressing the audit process remotely, combined with outstanding audit queries on the accounts.

 

Resolving the situation was a priority and more resources had been allocated. Weekly meetings were taking place with Deloitte, the external auditors, and an iterative process was being used to work through outstanding queries. Small errors and misstatements had also been identified in the draft statement of accounts 2019/20 and these were being worked through in order to correct them. It was hoped that the statement of accounts 2019/20 could be brought to the April meeting of the Audit and Governance Committee for approval.

 

Plans and work for removing the qualification issues from the statement of accounts 2018/19 and on the statement of accounts 2020/21 were also underway, however it was noted that as a result of the Redmond Review there may be changes to the timelines involved for the statement of accounts 2020/21.

 

Ian Howse, Deloitte stated that he was encouraged by the additional resources, in particular the appointment of a new Chief Accountant. Mr Howse gave assurance that Deloitte would work collaboratively with Wiltshire Council to progress the accounts properly and in a timely manner and that Deloitte had adequate resources to achieve this.

 

Cllr Pauline Church, Cabinet Member for Finance, Procurement and Commercial Investment, welcomed the new officers; David Baldam, Stratgeic Finance Accountant and Vicky Ody, Chief Accountant to the team. Cllr Church stated she was encouraged by the diligence being undertaken to produce a robust set of accounts and the focus on correcting small errors, it was also stated that Cllr Church would continue to hold the s151 officer and Deloitte to account.

 

Other councillors also welcomed to the new officers, particularly as the Audit and Governance Committee had previously expressed concerns over a lack of resources, so this was recognised as a positive step forward. In response to questions, assurance was given regarding the retrospective issues of the 2018/19 accounts,  which should involve no further material issues that would cause further qualification.  

 

Resolved:

 

To note the position of the accounts and audit process for the Statement of Accounts 2019/20.

 

73.

Grant Certification Report 2019/20

To consider the grant certification report from KPMG relating to teachers pay/pensions 2019/2020.

 

Supporting documents:

Minutes:

Lizzie Watkin, Head of Corporate Finance and Deputy s151, presented the grant certification report from KPMG relating to teachers’ pensions 2019/2020 as seen at pages 27-40 of the agenda.

 

There were no significant items to note in the report, therefore it was requested that the committee note the process was complete and note the audit report issued.

 

It was,

 

Resolved:

 

To note the conclusion of the audit of the Teachers’ Pension Contributions for 2019/20 and audit report issued.

 

74.

Q3 Internal Audit Report 2020/21

To consider the Q3 Internal Audit report 2020/2021.

 

Supporting documents:

Minutes:

David Hill, SWAP presented the Q3 internal audit report 2020/21 to the meeting.

 

Mr Hill noted that there had been an impact on delivery due to COVID-19 challenges and that four members of his team had been redeployed to Wiltshire Council in order to support payment of COVID-19 business grants. However, new initiatives such as agile working and data analytics had been undertaken in order to mitigate the challenges and there had been positive feedback on the one page report.

 

Continuous auditing had been introduced and these would be used to liaise with external auditors and the s151 and deputy.

 

All priority 1 actions had been implemented. There were still some outstanding priority 2 actions but significant progress has been made.

 

Page 46 of the agenda explained changes to the audit plan as a result of COVID. Appendix B detailed progress to date. Some minor updates to the table were highlighted. There were no errors of high corporate risk or significance.

 

Regarding the annual head of internal audit opinion, CIPFA had produced some guidance to deal with the challenging times. Other assurance providers both internal and external would be mapped and used to inform the annual internal audit opinion. 

 

Members queried how Wiltshire Council staff working from home had impacted on projects and Mr Hill explained that remote working was driving efficiencies and actually made collaborative working easier. In response to questions it was explained that the Internal Audit Plan was constantly updated and any risks to Wiltshire Council and therefore the Internal Audit Plan due to COVID-19 were mitigated by constant collaborative working to ensure that key risks were mapped back to the correct risk areas for the Council.

 

Councillors raised questions regarding overdue actions and how these were dealt with. Mr Hill stated that there was every ambition to make sure actions were implemented; terminology had been changed to agreed management actions rather than recommendations and follow up processes and procedures were in place, but it was up to management to carry out the actions. It was explained that further details would be given under the next agenda item.  

 

The Chairman stated that as this item was linked to the next agenda item 9, Outstanding Audit Recommendations, that the committee would hear that item before noting this item.

 

After hearing agenda item 9, it was,

 

Resolved:

 

To note the Q3 Internal Audit Report 2020/21.

 

75.

Internal Audit Outstanding Recommendations Report

To consider the report on internal audit outstanding recommendations.

 

Supporting documents:

Minutes:

The Chairman stated that at the last committee meeting the committee had expressed concerns regarding unimplemented Internal Audit Recommendations and had requested that the list of outstanding recommendations be reviewed and a report on this provided to the committee.

 

Andy Brown, Interim Corporate Director of Resources (S151 Officer), gave an update to the meeting. It was explained that some of the outstanding recommendations dated to before the pandemic, which was still ongoing and so the list of outstanding recommendations had required review. Internal Audit Management Actions were an integral part of the Councils control systems and part of a suite of management tools that should be used.

 

Paragraph 6 on page 75 of the agenda gave a summary of outstanding actions and categorised them. 20 had been completed, 25 were still to be implemented and were at the same priority level, 3 had increased in priority and 16 had been overtaken by organisation change. So, these would more than likely still be implemented but under different pathways. The detailed review could be seen in the appendix on page 78.

 

It was explained that the majority of outstanding actions were priority 3, however these still needed to be acted upon. Recommendations and timescales were still valid. The Audit and Governance Committee should still have oversight of overall totals to ensure management were still delivering. However, going forward, now that the cleanse had been undertaken, the focus should be on priority 1 & 2 actions, but with an oversight on priority 3 actions.

 

In response to questions it was stated that there may be differences between appendix C from SWAP (page 53) and then appendix 1 (page 78) as the Q3 report from SWAP was looking backwards. Now that the review had taken place, the updated list could be circulated to SWAP and a consolidated list developed that both SWAP and Wiltshire Council were happy with.  

 

SWAP confirmed that they had reviewed the list and were happy with it, therefore they could update their systems and produce an updated list. The Chairman requested that they pay particular attention to any actions coming off the list when the report was produced to ensure SWAP were happy.

 

During debate councillors queried the exact meaning of ‘overtaken by organisational change’. Some particular examples were detailed that Members were concerned about and in particular the accountability for these actions and who was responsible for them. It was explained that actions which had been overtaken by organisation change and that were now under organisational recovery, were part of the Organisational Recovery Programme for which Andy Brown and Jo Pitt (Director - HR & Organisational Development) were responsible. Some actions which had been overtaken by organisational change were now under the Corporate Leadership Team, acting as the Programme Board.

 

In response to the debate on the item, the proposed recommendations were adapted by the committee and it was,

 

Resolved:

 

·       To accept the update on the review of outstanding internal audit recommendations.

·       That management and SWAP should produce a consolidated and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 75.

76.

Corporate Governance Update

To receive an update on corporate governance.

 

Supporting documents:

Minutes:

Ian Gibbons, Director Legal and Governance gave an update to the committee and presented the report at page 103 of the agenda.

 

Mr Gibbons highlighted the Corporate Governance Group, an officer led group he chaired which had been established to steer the development of good corporate governance at the council. The terms of reference for the group could be found in the report.

 

A report on outstanding AGS improvement actions could be seen at page 107 of the agenda.

 

During debate the Chairman stated that the Audit and Governance Committee had governance responsibilities in its Terms of Reference, therefore requested clarification on the other committees that had a role in governance (paragraph 5 page 104). The officer explained that corporate governance was broad ranging, for example the Standards Committee had oversight of code of conduct complaints, Overview and Scrutiny held the Executive to account and the Constitution Focus Group were responsible for ensuring that the constitution was up to date. However, the Audit and Governance Committee had an overarching view and oversight of the council’s governance.

 

Further comments from councillors included that there was regret Ian Gibbons was retiring and best wishes for his future; that acronyms be kept to a minimum in reports and that it would be good if the distinct and discrete elements of governance could be detailed further in writing. The officer agreed and suggested that the protocol in the constitution relating to Corporate Governance that could be revisited, revised and reported back to the committee.

 

At the end of the debate it was;

 

Resolved:

 

·       To note the current status of improvement actions identified in Annual Governance Statement, as set out at Appendix 1 (pages 107 – 110).

·     To ask the monitoring officer to undertake a review of governance reporting arrangements in the constitution and report back to Audit & Governance Committee.

 

77.

Risk Management Review

To review any questions the committee has on Risk Management guidance and policies.

 

Minutes:

The Chairman sought assurance that Internal Audit resources were being properly assigned to corporate risk and service area risk. It was hoped that projects within the Internal Audit could be tied up with risks that the projects related to. 

 

Toby Eliot, Corporate Support Manager explained that Internal Audit have access to the risk register as it is published, however there was the possibility for more linkage and the officer would be happy to liaise to bring this about. However, the situation was more complicated at the moment due to the pandemic.

 

Mr Hill from SWAP stated that Internal Audit actions were on the corporate risk register and audit work should be directed at key corporate risks. SWAP were happy to meet with risk management to increase linkage and map assurances and mitigations, and could bring an update to the next committee.

 

Mr Eliot stated he was keen to have a full risk process running right through the organisation.

 

78.

The Redmond Review

To receive a presentation on the Redmond Review.

 

Supporting documents:

Minutes:

Lizzie Watkin gave a presentation on the Redmond Review.

 

The officer explained that the Redmond Review was an independent review undertaken by Sir Tony Redmond which considered the quality of local authority financial reporting and external audit.

 

The slides used for the presentation are appended to the minutes.

 

Key points stated:

 

·       The statuary deadline to sign off statement of accounts had been extended from 31 July to 30 September. Therefore, an additional Audit and Governance Committee would need to held in September in order to sign off the statement of accounts 2020/21.

·       There was an anticipated increase in fees, for which central government would be providing some funding, however it was unclear how the funds would be split between the sector therefore Wiltshire Council had put aside some funds towards this.

·       Auditors should provide an annual high-level performance report to Full Council.

·       Statements of accounts should be standardised and simplified.

·       The possibility of appointing suitably qualified independent persons to Audit Committees and how that could be managed.

 

After some discussion from Councillors it was agreed that the possibility of co-opting a suitably qualified person to the Audit and Governance Committee would be added to the Forward Work Programme.

 

 

 

79.

Forward Work Programme

To note the Forward Work Programme

Supporting documents:

Minutes:

The Forward Work Programme (page 111) was presented for consideration and it was,

 

Resolved:

 

To note the forward work programme.

 

80.

Date of Next Meeting

To note that the next regular meeting of the Committee will be held on 28 April 2021.

 

Minutes:

The next meeting of the Audit and Governance Committee would be held on 28 April 2021.

 

81.

Urgent Items

Any other items of business, which the Chairman agrees to consider as a matter of urgency.