Meeting documents

To consider the attached report.

Contact Officer:  Kate Mulhearn (01296) 585724

Members received a progress report on activity undertaken against the 2019/20 Assurance Plan that had been approved by the Committee in July 2019.  The following matters were highlighted:-

Final Reports issued since the previous Committee Meeting

Four reports had been completed since the last Committee meeting with the full review reports being attached as Appendix 3 to the Committee report:-

Council Tax and Business Rates – the review had been classified as Low risk and had identified one medium risk and one low risk findings:

·                    There were instances of refunds being processed via cheque despite original payments being made by batch BACS and bank details being taken via the phone.  These actions were not in line with the Council’s new policy (Low).

·                    The Council had contracted a third-party company to undertake a review of the Council’s active cases with a single person discount granted, however had not documented the action that was taken to gain assurance over the accuracy of the review (Low).

The audit report had noted a number of good practice areas which were an improvement on a similar audit undertaken in 2017-18.

Members noted that additional resources had been committed to the recovery team and led to a drop in court dates from 20% to between 3-5%, which was indicative of recovery rates improving.  The Committee expressed their thanks to the recovery team for the improved performance.

Taxi Licensing – the review had been classified as Medium risk and had identified two medium risk and one low risk findings:

·                    When processing applications within Salesforce, there was a lack of monitoring of vehicles that should be suspended.  Circumstances where this should have happened included an overdue second enhanced vehicle check and incorrect log books.  There was also scope for system improvement for operator licence applications  (Medium).

·                    Application statuses within Salesforce were not being updated to ‘complete’ when a licence had been issued.  Therefore, there was a lack of completeness when this data fed into management reports.  There had also been inconsistency in raising report requests, and the manner in which finalised reports were saved (Medium).

·                    Salesforce did not easily allow the monitoring of cases within the new complaints ‘triage’ process (Low).

The audit report had noted a number of good practice areas which were an improvement on a similar audit undertaken in 2017-18.  Members commented that the recent taxi licensing safeguarding training had been excellent, and expressed their thanks to the licensing team for the improved performance.

HR Management – the review had been classified as Low risk and had identified one medium risk and two low risk findings:

·                    There was not a central list of all roles that required DBS checks against which compliance could be monitored.  Sample testing of 15 staff members had identified one case where the role required an enhanced DBS check but it had not been done (Medium).

·                    There was no tool to centrally monitor IR35 status and record key information such as date of IR35 check, result and date for review.  A sample of 10 had shown that the status checks had been performed and evidence retained. (Low).

·                    A sample of 15 staff Members tested for completing mandatory safeguarding training  had noted 2 instances where staff were not included on the monitoring report.  It had also been noted no follow up had been undertaken on training that had been shown as "in-progress" or "not started" (Low).  The review had also noted that the HR team had not been actively monitoring the completion of data protection training due to a lack of resource.  It was noted that no reports had been run since February 2019 at which time 100% of staff had completed the mandatory e-learning.  It was however part of the mandatory induction process which had to be signed off by line managers.  Members commented that sufficient HR resource needed to be identified to ensure that this monitoring took place in the future.

The audit report had noted a number of good practice areas.

Corporate Fraud Risk Assessment – the review had not identified any ‘urgent’ priority tasks.  Overall, the result of the assessment indicated that there was an established control environment designed to mitigate the risk of fraud occurring.  Officers spoken to had a good awareness of the fraud risks and internal controls in their area.

Two ‘important’ priorities had been identified relating to training and guidance being provided to relevant staff, and the inherent risk of fraud occurring prior to the transition to the new unitary Buckinghamshire Council in April 2020.  One action had been raised to address this risk.  With a number of officers, particularly at a senior level, vacating posts, and not being replaced, it was possible this could impact on the control environment and the ability to ensure sufficient coverage of authorisation and an adequate segregation of duties.  In the lead up to vesting day, this risk could be mitigated through increased oversight from the new Buckinghamshire Council Corporate Management Team.

There had also been 16 ‘routine’ priority risks identified, which related to inherent risk.  No actions had been raised to address these risks as, provided controls continued to operate effectively, these risks should be effectively managed.

Summary of changes to the 2019/20 Internal Audit Plan

Members were informed that the 2019/20 Internal Audit Plan had been updated to look at the emerging risk in the area of Housing and Homelessness, which was now considered to be a priority area for review.  As a result, the audit of Section 106 agreements which had started in 2018/19 would not be concluded.  Work performed by BDO internal auditors in 2018/19 had been reviewed and this area was no longer considered a priority area for focus.

Implementation of Agreed Audit Actions

The implementation of actions and recommendations raised by internal audit reviews were monitored to ensure that the control weaknesses identified had been satisfactorily addressed.  Actions arising from low risk audit findings were followed up by management and reviewed, but not validated, by internal audit.

A full review of all outstanding audit actions, and the risks they were designed to mitigate them, had been undertaken.  In the context of transition to a unitary authority, this had assessed whether the associated systems, processes and policies would remain post vesting day, and whether or not the level of resource to complete them was proportionate to the risk being addressed.  The result of the exercise was detailed at Appendix 4 and summarised that:-

·                    40 actions remained for AVDC to complete by the end of February and the status to then be reported to the Audit Committee in March.

·                    12 actions had been completed.

·                    12 actions had been closed – these were no longer relevant for AVDC to complete, or had been superseded by more recent audit reviews.

·                    8 actions were recommended to be transferred to the Buckinghamshire Council for review as new controls, processes and systems were developed.

Members were informed that all remaining audit actions would be reported to the final Audit Committee meeting in March 2020.

Members sought additional information and were informed:-

·                    that the final status of actions, following the March 2020 meeting, would be formally handed over to the new Council.

·                    that the different audit teams from the Councils were working well together.

·                    that if a Member had a problem with the failure to collect an AVDC dog bin or of Health and Safety concerns at Aqua Vale they should provide the details to the Officers who would pass on the information to the relevant teams for their attention.

·                    that it was anticipated that the overall performance of the street cleansing service would improve now that it had been brought back in-house.

·                    that information would also be passed to Pembroke Road about the number of rats near to the Walton Pond, many of which were coming from the former HSBC Bank.

RESOLVED –

That the progress report be noted.