Agenda item

This report informs Members of the Internal Audit & Counter Fraud work completed during 2021-22 and presents the opinion of the Head of Internal Audit & Counter Fraud Shared Service, as Chief Audit Executive, on the Council’s internal control environment.

Discussion:

The Head of Internal Audit and Counter Fraud Shared Service introduced the report which detailed the performance of the service against the annual work plan for 2021/22 and brought together the three updates that were presented to the Committee during the year as well as additional information on work that had been completed since the last update.

Members then raised a number of questions and comments which included:

The team was thanked for all their hard work over the year.

• Resources – it was asked if there were sufficient resources within the team as the team’s resources has been deployed during the Pandemic to different parts of the service and it was noted that 72% of implementations against actions could be as a result of resource issues. The officer confirmed that resources had not been diverted to other parts of the service in the last year. The audit team had no involvement in the 72% implementation against actions as actions identified by reviews were the responsibility of the service to take action to improve their controls. The percentage if taken just as a number would appear low but should be taken in context of numbers implemented against the number outstanding.

• Outstanding Actions – in response to a question on what could be done by the Committee to increase awareness of outstanding actions and the need to prioritise, the officer said that the Committee had the power to request services to attend a meeting to provide explanations where required. Updates were given by departments as to the reasons for delays and to request extensions. It was important to remember that Covid had a significant impact on ability to deliver by agreed dates.

• Contracts and Procurement-in response to a question on adding a review of Children’s services contracts to planned audit work review, the officer said that there was already in place a scheduled review of Children’s Commissioning that was planned for this year. A refresh of the risk assessment would take place in July to set the plan for the second half of the year and would be brought before the Committee in September. Details of Education and Children’s commissioning reviews could be factored into that report.

The Chief Operating Officer added that additional resource for commissioning in SEN and Education had been factored into the 2022/23 budget.

• Norse - in response to questions around the waste management contract, why the contract had not been signed despite them being given the contract in 2019 with some key performance measures not reported, the officer said that when the review was conducted and reports agreed with the client for publication, there was an action plan in place for date of completion of works to complete the action. That date had only just elapsed, and this was the reason why there was no update in the report regarding this.

The Chief Operating officer added at the point the audit was conducted, the target date agreed was 31 March 2022 which in terms of the audit action plan had only just elapsed. A commitment was made for a briefing to be obtained from the Head of Service as to what the issues were that had led to the delays.

The officer reminded Members that the Audit Team had no involvement in the management of the contract as the review was to look into the contract management arrangements and provide an opinion.

Members asked for representation at a future meeting of relevant officers to attend a future meeting to provide clarity purely on the information that had been presented in the report. The Chair agreed this action.

The team was thanked for the work completed on the Medway Tests audit.

Children’s Commissioning and Children’s Improvement would both be part of audit process and efforts of the team were welcomed.

• Looked After Children (LAC) - it was asked in terms of LAC children’s regular savings, what actions and measures were in place to recoup the monies that had been paid directly to foster carers. The officer said the business change team was involved in work for the Council to pay the saving directly into the accounts of LAC. Controls were being put in place to ensure savings monies would not be paid to foster carers in the future with more work to be done to ascertain if there were any monies to be recouped.

• Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) - it was commented that clarification was needed on the HIF projects terms of reference as raised at Regeneration Culture and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee, around the Councils liability in the instance that the project was delayed. It was important to ensure that adequate monitoring of the project was in place.

• Deferred Audit - it was noted that some audits that has been deferred in 2021/22 had not been picked up in 2022/23 plans. The officer said that they were not included for various reasons, other audits may have been prioritised in terms of risk. The audit plans for the second half of the year would be reviewed in July and it would be decided what audits needed to be addressed.

Decision:

1. The Committee noted the work undertaken by the Internal Audit and Counter Fraud Shared Service for Medway during 2021-22 in providing an effective service to the Council.

2. The Committee considered and agreed to support the opinion of the Council’s internal control environment provided by the Head of Internal Audit and Counter Fraud Shared Service, as set out in Section 4 of Appendix 1, that Medway Council’s risk management, system of internal control, and framework of governance, were sufficient and effective, and contributed to the proper, economic, efficient, and effective use of resources in achieving the council’s objectives.