Issue - meetings

The committee received a progress report from the Head of Internal Audit regarding the Internal Audit Plan 2021/2022 and current opinion on the control environment based on work from the last six months.

The Committee Manager read out a question on behalf of the Independent Person regarding duplicate payments. The Head of Internal Audit acknowledged there was an increased risk of duplicate payments during the pandemic with remote working. The Council had recently submitted payments data to the Cabinet Office through the National Fraud Initiative exercise and would investigate any potential duplicated payments. In addition, the Council was investigating ways to carry out more routine data matching using the IT systems already in place.

The financial statements and value for money position of local authorities, which the City Council shares services with, are reviewed by the External Auditors. Internal Audit will review shared services risks and systems where they are the lead authority. Assurance is provided in the Annual Governance Statement, and any significant issues would be reported.

Following a discussion on cyber security risk, the Head of Internal Audit agreed this was one of the biggest areas of risk. The assurance is provided by Huntingdonshire District Council as the lead authority for ICT. Different reviews were undertaken regularly to ensure robust measures were in place`.

Audits offered an opportunity to challenge, look for improvements and determine if working practices needed to be changed.

Noted the comment on partners, shared services, third parties and trading companies and the risks they presented to the City Council. This was a complex area due to the variety of different governance arrangements in place. The Council completes assurance mapping which evidences sources of assurance from partners as part of the Annual Governance Statement process

The Committee:

Resolved (unanimously) to:

i. Approve the draft Audit Plan and Strategy; and

ii. Approve the supporting Charter and the Code of Ethics.