Councillors and committees

Agenda item

INTERNAL AUDIT PROGRESS REPORT - QUARTER 1 (01/04/19 - 30/06/19)

The purpose of this progress report is to inform members of the work completed by Internal Audit between 1 April 2019 and 30 June 2019. The current annual plan for Internal Audit is contained within the Internal Audit Strategy and Annual Plan 2019-20, which was approved by Audit and Governance Committee on 8 April 2019.

 

Minutes:

Witnesses:

 

David John, Audit Manager

Russell Banks, Orbis Chief Internal Auditor

 

Key points raised during the discussion:

 

  1. The Audit Manager introduced the report and provided a summary:

·         Of the 13 formal audits in quarter 1, 2 received minimal assurance which were: Schools Safeguarding Arrangements and the Surrey Pension Fund Administration.

·         More specifically, minimal assurance was given to the School Safeguarding Team due to significant control weaknesses within the way the team previously operated, exacerbated by large-scale staffing changes as a result of the directorate restructure.

·         Surrey Pensions Fund Administration received that level of assurance due to long-term weaknesses in process and control, and inefficiencies in team working practices. To address this, there was a new interim Pensions Manager appointed and a Governance Board was set up between Finance, Audit and Pensions Teams which continues to track recommendations. Deadlines for agreed actions would not be met due to resourcing and complexity, with the follow up audit now scheduled in quarter 3.

  1. Members were concerned that only 1 out of 13 audit reports in quarter 1 received substantive assurance and asked how these compared to last year and how they were being addressed. In response, the Audit Manager commented that it was partly positive as it showed audit resource was focussed on the highest risk areas, which was indicative of a good relationship between senior management and Internal Audit. The Orbis Chief Internal Auditor noted that this pattern of assurance mirrored that of his 2018/19 Annual Audit Opinion for the Council, overall which was Partial Assurance.
  2. The Audit Manager notified the Committee that a verbal update relating to the follow-up audit for Surrey Pension Fund Administration could be reported to the Committee in December.
  3. In response to the Orbis Chief Internal Auditor proposing that someone from the service concerning the Schools Safeguarding Arrangements would report to the Committee, Members agreed that the Chairman would write to the Chairman of the Children, Families, Life-long Learning and Culture Select Committee drawing attention to the report.
  4. The Audit Manager responded to a Member query by stating that there were no historical records prior to 2017 concerning Schools Safeguarding Arrangements due to bad practice. The majority of records were kept on email and those records were lost when staff left the team as there was no central repository. It was hoped that the new IT platform would resolve that issue once it was approved.
  5. In response to a Member query, the Orbis Chief Internal Auditor and the Audit Manager informed the Committee that the problem of self-assessment questionnaires not being submitted by the school safeguarding team was being addressed. A new online tool was purchased to allow self-evaluation of safeguarding arrangements which logged records centrally.

 

 

 

 

Actions/ further information to be provided:

 

  1. A13/19 - The Audit Manager notified the Committee that a verbal update relating to the follow-up audit for Surrey Pension Fund Administration could be reported to the Committee in December.

 

  1. A14/19 - The Chairman would write to the Chairman of the Children, Families, Life-long Learning and Culture Select Committee drawing attention to the report on the Schools Safeguarding Arrangements.

 

RESOLVED:

 

That the Committee noted the report and considered that no further action was required in response to issues raised.

 

Supporting documents: