To be assured that the level and range of activity within the proposed annual internal audit plan is sufficient to provide assurance over the council’s corporate governance arrangements and provides appropriate coverage of key business objectives, associated risks, and risk management processes.

To approve the internal audit charter for the period 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021.

Jacqui Gooding from South West Audit Partnership presented the draft internal 2020/21 audit plan.

The committee thanked the finance team and internal audit for their work in relation to Covid-19.  The chief executive was also thanked for his weekly report to all councillors.

It was noted that internal audit was classed as the third line of defence but that this was referenced in the internal audit charter.   SWAP explained that this was explained in the annual report but the first two lines of defence were the controls and responsibility in relation to officers and the underpinning policies which officers should be working to.   SWAP would look at what is in place and there is policies / controls not in place, they would make recommendations.  

It was requested that as issues were identified they were logged as that lessons could be learnt.

It was noted that SWAP were contracted for 900 days and that if there was a need for additional work in relation to Covid-19, some of the audit work in the draft plan may need to be removed to accommodate this work.  SWAP and the chief finance officer were meeting on a regular basis to monitor how many days had been used and will revise the plan as require.  The committee would be informed of any changes to the plan as part of the regular reporting.

The issue of the cost of the additional work in connection with personal protection equipment (PPE) was discussed.  The government had assured councils that these costs would be covered.   It would be considered appropriate to ask SWAP to look at these new process and suppliers in due course as they had been built from the scratch.  It may be possible to charge this work to the grant funding which will be received in connection with Covid-19. 

The committee thanked SWAP for the report as it gave them a better insight and assurance into the coverage in connection with the corporate ambitions and the risk register.  

In response to a query from a member of the committee, it was confirmed that the 28% of risks in the corporate risk register would be covered by other assurance mechanisms.  The annual governance statement was used as an example of providing assurance about other types of controls.  Once the plan was confirmed, then cross referencing work would be undertaken and would be covered in the mitigation section of the register.   It was noted that some of the risks not covered would have been covered in previous years and / or covered by the work of the external audit.  It was agreed that this would form part of the next progress report to the committee [16 June 2020]. 

SWAP confirmed that the audit into strategic partnerships [page 39 of the agenda pack] was likely to go ahead and that the work could be done in order to inform the work of the re-thinking governance working group who would be considering this point.   The re-thinking governance working group would presenting their proposals to the audit and governance committee in September, with recommendations going to council in October 2020.

It was noted that the committee had requested the audit of a specific capital project against the recommendations of Blue School House and wanted assurance that it had been or will be delivered.   The committee suggested that perhaps a discussion with S151 officer about the scope the audit would be helpful so that there was assurance that the scope was the one which the committee had intended. 

Internal audit charter

Jacqui Gooding presented the internal audit charter.  The committee had last approved the charter on 19 March 2019. 

It was confirmed that SWAP share audits and have regular conversations with the external auditor (Grant Thornton).   Grant Thornton confirmed that they do not place any reliance on the audits but do use them to inform their planning and direction of travel with regard to the external audit. 

Following a query from the committee, SWAP agreed to look at the working with regard to the provision of consultancy so that it was clear that this was potentially other work which may sit either inside or outside of the internal audit plan. 

Agile auditing

It was noted that once staff return to an office environment, there will be a move to agile working.   This meant that the audit engagement would be in shorter stages and the service being audited would be kept more informed.   The audits would be shorter from start to finish.  It was confirmed that whilst there would be more people involved in the audits, there would be no increase in costs as the council paid for 900 days of auditing.   It was hoped that this would drive efficiencies but this would not be confirmed until there had been a move to agile working. 

RESOLVED that the

(a)              proposed internal audit plan 2020-21 at appendix 1 was reviewed.  

(b)           internal audit charter at appendix 2 be approved; and

(c)             agile auditing document at appendix 3 be noted.