Issue - meetings

The committee received a report from the Head of Internal Audit regarding the Annual Audit Opinion 2013/14.

In response to members’ questions the Head of Internal Audit said the following:

       i.          83% of the areas audited achieved an assurance level of ‘significant’. Whilst the number of audits during 2013/14 had been lower than previous years there had been coverage across all Council sections.

     ii.          The vast majority of the actions from 2011/12 had now been completed. An update on these outstanding actions would be brought back to a future meeting.

   iii.          25 actions were still outstanding from 2012/13 but these were being actively followed up.

   iv.          Actions and deadlines were agreed with service areas and these were actively followed up by Senior Leadership Team (SLT).

Members of the committee raised concern about the number of outstanding actions, some dating back years, and felt these should be addressed through senior officers. It was also suggested that Heads of Service could be invited to future committee meetings to provide further information on why the actions had not been progressed.

The Chief Executive assured the committee that SLT took these outstanding actions very seriously and it was important that managers took responsibility to ensure that the actions set were realistic and achievable. It was agreed that a more in-depth analysis of the outstanding actions could be undertaken and reported back to the committee for further discussion.

Councillor Pitt proposed the following additional recommendation:

i.                 Request that a report on the outstanding and overdue actions, as set out in the officers report, be brought back to a future meeting including:

-        steps proposed to resolve

-        target dates

-        senior officer accountability

The additional recommendation was agreed unanimously.

Resolved (unanimously) to:

       i.          Note the Annual Audit Opinion 2013/14 report.

     ii.          Request that a report on the outstanding and overdue actions, as set out in the officers report, be brought back to a future meeting including:

-        steps proposed to resolve

-        target dates

-        senior officer accountability