Report of: the internal auditor BDO

Purpose of report: to inform the Committee on progress against the 2017-18 audit plan.

Recommendation: to discuss and note the report.

The Committee considered the report of the internal auditor BDO setting out progress made against the internal audit plan.

Gurpreet Dulay, internal auditor, reported that the audit plan was on track and that he expected all reports would be completed by July 2018. The outstanding reports reflected the deferral of the effective trading date for the Direct Services companies.

The Committee noted progress against the audit plan.

Report of: the internal auditor BDO

Purpose of report: to inform the Committee of progress made against the internal audit plan.

Recommendation: to discuss and note the report.

The Committee considered the report of the internal auditor BDO setting out progress made against the internal audit plan.

Gurpreet Dulay, internal auditor, reported that the audit plan was on track.

The Committee considered the individual audit reports included.

GDPR

The Committee noted the report.

Helen Bishop, Head of Business Improvement gave an update on the implementation of changes as a result of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) and reported that the project plan, processes and training were in place to ensure the council was in compliance. The Head of Law and Governance explained her oversight role.

Recruitment and retention

The Committee commented that a focus on exit interviews, with someone other than the line manager, and an analysis of the results would be beneficial.

The Head of Business Improvement reported that leavers were offered a formal exit survey but not followed up. Turnover was about average for a local authority. A small number of market supplements were paid for key roles and options for revising terms and conditions with a view to improve retention were being considered.

The Committee noted without comment reports on:

·         Accounts payable

·         Council tax and NNDR

·         Housing rents.

The Committee noted progress against the audit plan, the individual reports, and the discussion.

Report of: the internal auditor BDO

Purpose: to inform the Committee of progress made against the internal audit plan.

Recommendation: to discuss and note the report.

The Committee considered the report of the internal auditor BDO setting out progress made against the internal audit plan.

Gurpreet Dulay and Yasmin Ahmed, internal auditors, introduced their reports.

They reported verbally on the outcome of the of the Fusion partnership: the report was completed after the agenda publication and would be included in the papers for the next meeting. Three recommendations were agreed and a moderate opinion issued.

Cash and cheque handling processes had been improved and a procedure put in place for all staff who handles cash or cheques to follow to both log and safely and speedily transfer these to the bank. Staff were to recommend online payments, although some services would still primarily use cash or cheque payments.

The counter-fraud review did not find any issues to report. Right-to-buy requests were all thoroughly investigated before any transaction was allowed to proceed.

The Committee noted that work on the benefits action plan was ongoing and Ernst and Young would report on the audit of the 2016/17 benefits claim in January. It was commented that a review of the diversity of the customer panels may be useful.

The Committee noted the report.

Report of: the internal auditor: BDO

Purpose: to inform the Committee of progress made against the internal audit plan.

Recommendation: that the Audit & Governance Committee considers and notes the report.

The Committee considered the report of the internal auditor BDO on progress made against the internal audit plan.

Gurpreet Dulay, BDO, introduced the report.

The Committee noted that making as much information as possible available over the website reduced the work involved in Freedom of Information requests and asked if meaningful measures for performance in achieving channel shift to online transactions could be produced.

The Committee resolved to notethe report.