Agenda item

This report presents the Revised Audit and Counter Fraud Plan 2020-21 for Medway for Members’ approval.

Discussion

The Committee considered the revised Audit and Counter Fraud Plan 2020-21. This would normally have been presented to the Committee for approval in March 2020 but that meeting had been cancelled due to Covid-19. Due to the impact of Covid-19 and the emergency response, Audit and Counter Fraud had effectively lost the first quarter of the year. The revised presented to the Committee covered the period 1 July 2020 to 31 March 2021. Quarterly reviews were undertaken with the focus on areas that were checked frequently and in receipt of a positive audit opinion, being on ensuring that controls remained effective, without the need for wider review. This enabled resources to be directed elsewhere with it not having been possible to include every review that had been included in the original 2020/21 Plan.

It was questioned how the audit items removed from the current iteration of the Plan had been identified and whether they would be rescheduled, with Public Health Improvement highlighted as an area that would be an important area to retain. It was also suggested that the Committee could play a specific role in the audit of the Council’s Covid-19 related expenditure and it was asked what preparations were being made for a possible second wave of Covid-19.

The Head of Audit and Counter Fraud Shared Service said that levels of overall risk had been considered when identifying which audit activities to remove from the Plan. In relation to Public Health Improvement Plans, the existing plans would not relate to Covid and therefore new Plans needed to be developed ahead of any meaningful audit activity being undertaken. Audit of parking enforcement was another area that had been identified for deferral as the shutdown of courts during the pandemic had meant that enforcement activity could not be undertaken as usual. The audit service had been heavily involved in fraud prevention work relating to the business support grant funding. Post payment data matching was likely to be undertaken to identify any fraudulent applications where a grant had been paid.

In the event of a significant second wave of Covid-19 it was likely that usual audit work would cease or be reduced. In this scenario, it may be that only limited assurance work could be undertaken by Spring / Summer 2021, but it was difficult to plan for such eventualities until the extent of any Covid-19 resurgence was known.

The Chief Finance Officer said that significant sums of grant funding had been provided by the Government, in relation to Covid-19, for businesses, business rate payers and council tax payers. A total of £40million had been paid in Medway, with the Council being responsible for processing applications. 4,000 applications had been received for small business grants with 3,000 having been paid. The remainder had been rejected due to being duplicates, ineligible or potentially fraudulent. The Council had been provided with other ring-fenced funding related to Covid-19, which covered activity such as infection control in care homes and outbreak control measures. The Council’s Gold and Silver Covid-19 command structures were responsible for determining how this funding be allocated. A further £16.5 million had been provided of non-ring fenced funding.

In response to a question, the Committee was advised that Audit had not been invited to take part in the Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) Working Group. However, there were strict regulations that must be adhered to in relation to HIF funding an how it could be spent.

It was requested that a report be presented to the next meeting of the Committee to provide detail of the HIF process and how this would be managed.

Decision

The Committee:

i)         Approved the revised Audit and Counter Fraud Plan 2020-21 for Medway.

ii)        Agreed that the Head of Internal Audit and Counter Fraud be given authority, following consultation with the Chairman of the Committee, to make urgent changes to the Plan where it is not practicable to seek approval from the Committee and that any such amendments to the Plan be reported to the next meeting of the Committee for information.