Agenda item

To consider a report by the Chief Internal Auditor (copy enclosed) updating members on Internal Audit progress.

 

The Chief Internal Auditor (CIA) introduced the report (previously circulated). Members were updated on the Internal Audit Team’s progress in terms of its service delivery, assurance provision, reviews completed, performance and effectiveness in driving improvement.

 

The report provided information on the end of year work carried out by Internal Audit since the last committee meeting. The report provided the committee the end of year update on Internal Audits performance for the previous 12 months. A table detailed the performance level for the year had been included in the agenda papers. The CIA praised the work carried out  by his team. From the start of the year being short staffed to achieving the level of audits completed was commendable. The report also included summaries of Internal Audit reports completed since the last update.

 

Confirmation that 10 Audits had been completed since the last committee meeting in January 2025, six being awarded a high assurance rating and four received a medium assurance rating.

Members were guided through the details of the completed Audit Wales reports. Along with details of reports completed by Estyn, CIW and other external regulator reports.

 

Members were reminded that the audit team was relatively young. Training was essential for the development and knowledge of the team. The Career Pathway Principal Internal Auditor had enrolled with the Institute of Internal Auditors and was due to start studying towards the certified qualification. One of the Career Pathway – Senior Auditors had enrolled with the Institute of Internal Auditors and was about to start the Practitioner level qualification in May 2025.

 

As stated within the report the last year had been a challenging year for Internal Audit with a number of factors outside the control of the team which included: six whistleblowing complaints during the financial year; between the middle of June through to the middle of August, three members of the Internal Audit Team provided support to the Waste project; the team experienced an unusually high amount of sickness from 1 April to 31 March amounting to 219 days being lost, and one of the Career Pathway - Senior Auditors resigned on the 25 November

which influenced the delivery of the plan.

 

It was confirmed the NFI piece of work had been completed. All matches had been investigated and a total of £48,620.99 in overpayments has been identified and the team were in the process of recovering those over payments.

 

Members were guided through the progress made against  the 2024-2025 plan, details included audits that had been completed, put on hold and deferred to 2025-2026.

 

The Chair thanked the CIA for the detailed report and introduction. He stated in his opinion Internal Audit was the ears and eyes for the committee as to the workings of the authority and beyond. 

On behalf of the committee the Chair was grateful for the full audit reports being sent to members and officers responding to any questions. Members echoed the Chairs comments and commented how valuable the audit team were in the authority.

 

In response to members comments the CIA confirmed in response to any whistleblowing reports, the Monitoring Officer and Section 151 officer were informed, to review and assess the best way to proceed with the report. There were different options to proceed with whistleblowing reports, including inhouse reviews completed by services, external consultants or the Internal Audit team carrying out an investigation. Members were made aware of an agreement in place with the other North Wales authorities to support when with investigations.

 

It was stressed to Members the Audi work plan was constantly reviewed and work was moved to accommodate audits that were required to be completed and those that could be deferred. The CIA necessary stated he held regular meetings with the Principal Auditor to ensure all areas of audits were completed.

 

Members raised concerns on the capacity and time of members of the audit team. In response the CIA emphasised that the number of whistleblowing reports received gave officers assurance that officers and members of the public were confident to come forward with any concerns or failings.

The audit team capacity over the last 12 months had been of a concern, the CIA and Head of Finance had discussed potential ways of addressing concerns and over the summer months progress the team forward.

 

The Head of Finance stressed the importance of remembering the flexibility of the audit plan. The plan was set at a specific point in time with the availability of to move on a risk-based assessment. Members were encouraged to raise any concerns or issues they had with the CIA who in turn would address and review. Members heard there was often value in the work conducted with special investigations and lessons learnt for other services and departments.

 

Lay Member Nigel Rudd raised some issues on the National non-domestic report (NNDR) report. He confirmed he had spoke to the CIA to ask if a missed opportunity when scoping this report was made. He stated in his opinion it did not specify the number of properties in the council, the volume of finance raised or recovered, the volume of arears year on year and the balance between that was recovered into the national pool and that what was reallocated from the National pool.

The CIA thanked the Member for his email and comments. When scoping the NNDR audit he confirmed the areas raised by the member were included as part of the testing. It was included in the audit working papers but may not be included in detail in the audit report and opinion. The report condensed the work the auditor completed in the audit. The CIA confirmed he had communicated to one of the managers in the NNDR team and they were in the process of collating the information. Once it was available the CIA confirmed he would circulate the information.

When scoping and completing an audit the team can be in a service for several days observing and asking questions. If the audit team had to revisit the service and ask further questions it may cause more disruption and cause services to be irritated with the disruption. Members heard the importance of keeping a positive working relationship with services.

 

Concerns were raised regarding the Car park fees audit. Members noted it had been 8years since the last review of the area had been conducted. Questions arose if there were any other areas that had not had a review completed in several years. The CIA confirmed car park fees had been informally reviewed during the last 8 years. Car park fees are informally reviewed on an annual basis.

The CIA confirmed the comments and concerns had prompted him to look at other areas of fees for future audits. Benchmarking against neighbouring authorities was difficult due to the difference in landscape between authorities. The team do look at neighbouring authorities and the private car parks when conducting the audit work.

The Section 151 Officer stressed the scope of the audit was to review the considerations had been given to reach the £700k for assurance around the figures that are inputted into the MTFS.

When scoping work the CIA confirmed a discussion with Service Managers to look at what best outcome of the review was conducted. The CIA stressed the importance of him remaining independent when reviewing and scoping the audit work.

 

Confirmation from the Audit Wales representative Mike Whiteley confirmed that there was no outstanding work for the Grants certification 2021-22. He confirmed a copy of the work could be passed on to the CIA.

 

The CIA stated he would liaise with the Head of Service to ensure any reviews or responses to Audit Wales Work had been provided to the committee.

It was also stressed the reason a number of the major savings proposal work was on hold was due to a number of reasons. Some were due to the service not ready for audit to commence work with others due to resource issues.

 

The Chair thanked the CIA and all the audit team for the work completed and presented.

Councillor Bobby Feeley proposed the recommendations as stated in the report seconded by Lay Member Paul Whitham. Lay Member Nigel Rudd abstained from the vote, all other members were in favour.

 

RESOLVED that 

 

1. The committee considered the report and the content and assessed the Audit’s progress and performance.
2. The committee did not want any further assurances and discussed the audited areas