The purpose of this report is to enable the committee to provide independent assurance on the adequacy of the risk management framework together with the internal control of the financial reporting and annual governance processes.

The Assistant Director of South West Audit Partnership (SWAP) introduced the report, the key points included: an overview was provided of the recent changes to SWAP personnel and the intention to restructure the team; the purpose of the annual report was outlined; attention was drawn to Appendix A - Internal Audit Annual Opinion 2021/22, particularly to the key areas of concern which included project management, data quality / data management, business continuity, Education Health and Care (EHC) Plans, contract management, and baseline assessment for the maturity of fraud; there were no areas of significant corporate risk reported to the committee; 57 reviews had been delivered, resulting in 75 agreed actions; Covid grants from central government required audit work to be undertaken and SWAP were working with the council to streamline grant certification; ‘reasonable’ internal audit opinion was provided and there was ‘generally a sound system of governance, risk management, and control in place’.

The following points were made in response to questions from committee members:

i.             It was commented that environmental concerns were part of the everyday process and working practices.

ii.            It was noted that main accounting, treasury management, and capital accounting were financially critical areas and had received ‘substantial’ assurance opinions.

iii.          A committee member drew attention to the high proportion of grant certification work, with broader assurance comprising 26% of the audit work undertaken.  The Assistant Director advised that grant certification went beyond financial checking and could include actual delivery of outcomes, and reiterated the intention to streamline the process.

iv.          It was commented that there was a need for assurance mapping in future years, with clearer linkages to corporate objectives.  It was explained that a significant corporate risk would be a risk or a concern where the council was likely to fail one of its corporate objectives.

v.           It was noted that there was a need for coordination between internal audit and the performance team to ensure that there was assurance that identified actions were being delivered.

vi.          It was confirmed that internal audit was working with the project management team to look at data quality / data management across the council.

vii.         In view of issues with some previous projects, it was recognised that the committee would want assurance that project management processes were in place and were embedded.

RESOLVED:

That the assurance provided by the annual opinion report be noted.