Agenda item

The Committee considered the External Audit Quality Assessment which had been completed by CIPFA in Q3 of 2021/22. Mr Ray Gard, Lead Associate from CIPFA attended to present the assessment which could be seen in full on pages 65 to 80 of the agenda pack, the findings of which would be considered as part of the Business Assurance service review and be included in the improvement plan.

Internal audit within the public sector in the United Kingdom was governed by the Public Sector Internal Audit Standards (PSIAS). All public sector internal audit services were required to measure how well they were conforming to the standards. This was achieved through the undertaking of periodic self-assessments, external quality assessments, or a combination of both methods. However, the standards state that an external reviewer must undertake a full assessment or validate the internal audit service’s own self-assessment at least once in a five-year period. As Buckinghamshire Council only came into being as a unitary authority in 2020 this was the first external quality assessment of conformance to the PSIAS that the Internal Audit Service had undergone.

The opinion of CIPFA was that Buckinghamshire Council’s Internal Audit Service’s self-assessment was accurate and concluded that the Council fully conformed to the requirements of the Public Sector Internal Audit Standards and the CIPFA Local Government Application Note. There were no areas of non-conformance. The report highlighted the good practice of the internal audit service in establishing practices as part of the formation of a new authority alongside the issues that arose as a result of Covid. The report summarised that managers across the Council value the internal audit service. The team were seen as having been proactive and sought to build sound control and risk management frameworks. The service was recognised as a small in house team who were well experienced and qualified.

Some areas were highlighted within the report where progress could be made as the service developed moving forward such as ensuring the internal audit plan aligned with Council objectives and developing the service further as service reviews are completed, although on the whole it was a very positive report.

In addition, Members also sought information on the following:

-          In terms of resourcing the team, Mr Gard advised that for the size of the Council, ideally additional staff would be in place and as the service went through its service review, budget and posts may be freed up.

-          Specialist IT auditors were difficult to recruit and the current way of working using Mazars had its benefits, both economically and in that they work with various clients so see risks across a number of clients and had the ability to benchmark areas of best practice and areas for improvement.

-          Assurance was given to the Committee that all recommendations were taken on board and would be fed in to the service review process. A report would be brought back to the Committee in six months’ time to provide an update.

-          The survey results appended to the report provided a snapshot of views at that particular time. Although there were free text boxes within the survey, where respondents had disagreed with certain questions they had not provided much additional information to provide background or help establish patterns.

-          It was clarified that the audit manual was scheduled to be updated.

The Committee placed on record its thanks to the team in receiving such a positive report, particularly in light of the pressures and challenges of both dealing with the impact of the Covid pandemic and through the establishing of a new unitary authority.

RESOLVED –

That the report be noted.