Meeting documents

AVDC Audit Committee
Wednesday, 7th November, 2007

Document: 2007-11-07 AUDIT COMMITTEE
 

PRESENT:- Councillor N Blake (Chairman); Councillors Chilver, Kennell, Ralph and Mrs Rowlands.  Councillor Mrs Morgan-Owen attended also as an ex-Officio Member.
 

APOLOGIES:- Councillors Cadd, Isham, Lambert and Mills.
 

TRAINING
 

Prior to the commencement of the formal business of the meeting, Members received a presentation on the work undertaken by the Council's Audit Fraud Investigation unit.
 

1.

PERMANENT CHANGE TO MEMBERSHIP
 

The Committee was informed that there had been a change to the Conservative membership of the Committee, with Councillor Chilver replacing Councillor Mrs Bloom.
 

2.

MINUTES
 

RESOLVED –
 

That the Minutes of 18th September, 2007, be approved as a correct record.
 

3.

ADOPTION AND APPROVAL OF THE FINAL ACCOUNTS FOR 2006/07
 

At the Committee's meeting on the 18th September, 2007, the Council's External Audit Manager had advised Members that work on the financial statements was in progress and was expected to be completed in time to meet the end of September 2007 accounts deadline.  This work mostly related to looking at where in the accounts the financial transactions relating to the housing stock transfer had been entered and that this process had complied with recently revised accounting practices.
 

Members were provided with a copy of the finalised accounts for 2006/07 along with information explaining Statement of Accounts movements since they had previously been reported and a summary of the changes made to the text within the Statement of Accounts.  These final amendments had now been agreed with the External Auditors.
 

RESOLVED –
 

(1)

That the changes to the draft final accounts for Aylesbury Vale District Council for the financial year 2006/07, since previously reported, be approved.
 

(2)

That full Council be recommended to adopt and approve the Final Accounts for 2006/07.
 

(3)

That, for future years, full Council be recommended to amend the terms of reference of the Audit Committee to allow it to receive the Council's final accounts for adoption and approval.
 

4.

BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING
 

Members asked at the last meeting for an update report on business continuity planning including information on whether the Council's Plan would be fully compliant by December, 2007 and, if not, for an explanation to be provided of what actions were being taken to achieve compliance.
 

The Committee received a report informing them on the progress made with the Business Continuity Plan (BCP) since it was last reported on in January 2007, together with information, current as at 14th September, 2007, self-assessing AVDC against the Audit Commission's Business/Service Continuity Management checklist.  Members were informed that:-
 

(i)

all services had now completed tests on their arrangements at their Continuity Areas – the alternative office location from which they would, if necessary, maintain a limited service.
 

(ii)

an exercise for members of the Restoration Team, which consists of representatives from Corporate Team and other services such as IT, Property Services, Communications etc who would have additional work as a result of an incident, had been held in June to talk through how an incident might develop and what decisions / actions would be taken at each stage.  This exercise had identified a number of areas which needed to be refined and which had since been addressed.
 

(iii)

reviews of information security and risk management had been completed by Internal Audit which had led to the recruitment of a Risk Manager (commenced November 2007) and the establishment of an Information Governance Group, chaired by the Corporate Director (Communities) with responsibility for overseeing the Council's use of information, information security and governance.
 

One potential weak point in service continuity was AVDC's reliance upon external contractors and suppliers.  Heads of Service had been asked to check with contractors/suppliers on the state of their business continuity planning arrangements and to ensure that this issue was addressed in all new contracts let for significant works or services.
 

The Committee were given a detailed explanation of the checklist key issues that had only been partially met (7 items) or had not yet been achieved (1 item), were also advised of the current areas of work being undertaken on the BCP following the recent move of staff from Exchange Street to The Gateway.
 

Members commented on the following:-
 

(a)

that it was important that business continuity arrangements checks were done with all current contractors and suppliers.  If at all possible, a date should be set by which these checks would be completed.
 

(b)

that they were concerned that the plans to move the majority of Council staff to the Gateway site would adversely impact on the Council's ability to be able to provide services following a disruptive event at that site.  It was explained that this matter was being reviewed as a part of current business continuity work.
 

(c)

clarification was sought on the evacuation and other procedures the Council had in place to respond to emergencies, such as fires, within Council offices.  Members commented that all staff should be made aware of these arrangements.
 

(d)

further information was asked for, and provided, on the establishment and operation of Emergency Operations Centres (EOC) by the Council.
 

(e)

that the BCP's scenario planning needed to also consider how AVDC would respond to an event that affected all of Aylesbury.
 

(f)

further information was asked for, and provided, on business continuity arrangements in place for restoring IT and telephone communication.
 

RESOLVED –
 

That the current position with AVDC's Business Continuity Plan be noted.
 

5.

REVIEW OF INTERNAL AUDIT EFFECTIVENESS
 

The Accounts and Audit Regulations issued in 2006 require a review of the effectiveness of Internal Audit to be conducted at least once a year.
 

The Committee received a report on the operation of the Internal Audit Section, which had been self-assessed against the Chartered Institute of Public Finance Accountants (CIPFA) “Code of Practice for Internal Audit in Local Government in the United Kingdom” checklist.  The checklist enabled service provision to be measured against the standards set out within the Code.  Accompanying the checklist was an Action Plan which it was intended would be implemented to address issues raised during the review.
 

Members were informed by the Internal Audit Manager that some of the areas she would be reviewing included the relationship between the Audit Committee and Internal Audit, internal audit job descriptions, and ensuring that audit's terms of reference fully complied with the new Code.
 

RESOLVED –
 

That the report be noted.
 

6.

CIPFA INTERNAL AUDIT BENCHMARKING
 

The Committee received a report informing them on the results of the 2007 CIPFA Benchmarking for Internal Audit.  The results highlighted the Internal Audit Service's performance for 2007/08, as well as performance during the three previous years, against the benchmarking group of other Councils who participated in this factual information comparison:-
 

(i)

Comparison 1 (Number of Internal Audit days compared with the gross turnover of the Council) – overall the number of audit days was slightly below the average, mainly due to in-year staff vacancies and a period of maternity leave.
 

(ii)

Comparison 2 (Cost of Internal Audit Section compared with the gross turnover of the Council) – the cost of the service remained below the average.
 

(iii)

Comparison 3 (The cost to the Council of each chargeable Internal Audit day) – the higher cost of Internal Audit staff during 2005/06 and 2006/07 reflected the need to buy in some external resources to provide cover for internal vacancies.  It was anticipated that this cost would reduce now that Bucks local authorities had established a combined call off contract with Deloittes.
 

(iv)

Comparison 4 (Number of chargeable days worked by each auditor) – this graph reflected the vacancies during 2005/06.  The higher than average productivity of AVDC reflected the use of the Bucks joint call off contract to audit shared arrangements, for example, payroll, which was common to more than one authority.
 

(v)

Comparison 5 (Audit Time spent or planned in various areas) – while this comparator detailed the number of days allocated in each area, it was not possible to make a direct comparison as the categories for which information had been requested had varied over the years.  However, it did show that the work programmes of the Internal Audit were similar to other like Councils.
 

RESOLVED –
 

That the results of the CIPFA Internal Audit Benchmarking exercise for 2006/07 be noted.
 

7.

FUTURE MEETINGS
 

It was agreed that an additional meeting be held on Tuesday 19th February, 2008, to focus on risk management issues.
 

The next meeting of the Audit Committee would be held at 6.30 pm on the 11th December, 2007, in the Meeting Room at The Gateway, Gatehouse Road, Aylesbury.