Agenda item - Internal Audit Annual Report and Opinion 2019/20

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Agenda item

Internal Audit Annual Report and Opinion 2019/20

Report of the Acting Director, Finance & Resources

Decision:

1)             That the Committee note that reasonable assurance has been given on the overall adequacy and effectiveness of the Council’s framework of governance, risk management and control for the year ended 31 March 2020.

 

2)             That the Committee note the assurances and improvement actions detailed on audits finalised since the last progress report to this Committee in March 2020.

Minutes:

8.1          The Committee considered a report of the Acting Director Finance & Resources that set out the Chief Internal Auditor’s opinion on the overall adequacy and effectiveness of the council’s framework of governance, risk management and control for the year-ended 31 March 2020.

 

8.2          Dr Horne stated that the committee should be mindful of the successful implementation of audit recommendations in the current circumstances.

 

8.3          Councillor Hill asked if there were any Internal Audit concerns relating to Cityclean.

 

8.4          The Audit Manager stated that the report detailed a summary of some of the difficulties that had occurred in the service and the control response. Most of the control actions had been completed and Internal Audit would shortly be following up on whether those outstanding actions had been completed with the results reported to a future meeting.

 

8.5          Councillor Hamilton asked if the agency payments included schools and whether both of the high priority actions had been completed.

 

8.6          The Audit Manager clarified that the agency payments detailed excluded schools and that an update on the high priority actions would be reported back to the committee members after the meeting.

 

8.7          Councillor Hamilton asked of there had been any financial impact relating to the high priority actions.

 

8.8          The Audit Manager stated that whilst significant control weaknesses had been found, no financial loss had occurred.

 

8.9          Helen Aston noted that there was an overall audit opinion of reasonable assurance and asked if the expected trajectory of the that opinion going forward was upwards or downwards.

 

8.10      The Audit Manager replied that it was a difficult question to answer as the pandemic would raise significant challenges in some areas of the council that would have an impact. Furthermore, the number of partial assurances had remained stable from the previous financial year and there was now good opportunity to benchmark through the Orbis Partnership.

 

8.11      Councillor Hugh-Jones asked whether there was an understanding of the issues behind direct payments being assigned minimal assurance and whether steps toward improvement were being made. Further, Councillor Hugh-Jones asked if correct controls had been put in place for housing rent collections and adult social care debt collections and expressed concern relating to the issues reported on Cityclean.

 

8.12      In response to the questions, the Audit Manager stated that adult social debt collections were some way off target which was found mainly to be down to poor performance rather than a lack of controls. The audit on direct payments had only recently been completed and the high priority actions assigned had a due date of 30 September 2020, so this area was perhaps not as bad as appeared. The Audit Manager stated that he would provide a written update on housing rent collections as the information was not available to hand.   

 

8.13      RESOLVED-

 

1)             That the Committee note that reasonable assurance has been given on the overall adequacy and effectiveness of the Council’s framework of governance, risk management and control for the year ended 31 March 2020.

 

2)             That the Committee note the assurances and improvement actions detailed on audits finalised since the last progress report to this Committee in March 2020.

Supporting documents:

 


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