Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED: That Councillor Martin Pepper be elected as Chairman and Councillor Stephen Marshall be elected as Deputy Chairman for the Municipal Year 2022-23.

Apologies for non attendance were received from Councillor Pepper who was substituted by Councillor Chegwyn.

There were none

(NOTE: The Board is required to receive a deputation(s) on a matter which is before the meeting of the Board provided that notice of the intended deputation and its object shall have been received by the Borough Solicitor by 12 noon on Tuesday 28 June 2022. The total time for deputations in favour and against a proposal shall not exceed 10 minutes)

There were none.

(NOTE: The Board is required to allow a total of 15 minutes for questions from Members of the public on matters within the terms of reference of the Board provided that notice of such Question(s) shall have been submitted to the Borough Solicitor by 12 noon on Tuesday 28 June 2022

There were none.

To table the Annual Audit Opinion for 2021/22 for noting to the Members with responsibility for governance, as set out in Appendix A.

To present the reviewed Audit Strategy to the board for approval, as set out in Appendix B.

Consideration was given to a report of the Chief Internal Auditor tabling the Annual Audit Opinion for 2021/22 for noting to the Members with responsibility for governance, as set out in Appendix A and to present the reviewed Audit Strategy to the board for approval, as set out in Appendix B.

The Chief Internal Auditor introduced his report.

The council is required to produce an annual audit opinion on the internal control framework on an annual basis and this opinion which will subsequently form part of the Annual Governance Statement. This report is the culmination of the audit work that was conducted as part of the 2021/22 audit plan which is used to determine the opinion given. As noted in section 2 of the report, the annual opinion remains at Reasonable Assurance. Results have shown an increase in the number of audits achieving full or reasonable assurance however the number of exceptions found has increased however it is worth noting that a higher number of audits/grant work was completed in this financial year.

One area of concern that I'd like to highlight is the completion of the agreed actions stemming from previous audit reports with only 29% being fully completed. For reference for those members who may not have seen audit reports previously, if an audit highlights any high risk exceptions, we conduct a follow up audit in the next financial year to review if the action to address the risk has been addressed.

Due to this low level of completion, we will now conduct 2^nd follow ups on areas where the first follow up has highlighted that areas remain open or in progress. In addition, open exceptions will also be highlighted to the corporate governance group.

Also included in the report is the results of any audits which were completed after the last standards and governance report.

In answer to a Members question the Chief Internal Auditor explained that there were still covid related grants being administered, and therefore discussions would take place to help decide priorities including audit work.

Members were advised that there would be a full audit on procurement that would last approx. 10 days and would be starting from scratch and subject to the second follow up checks.

Members were keen that the Contract Procedure Rules were adhered to and felt it was essential to ensure all contracts were above board. A Member suggested that discussions should take place with the staff that use the procurement system on a regular basis to find out how they were managing.

Members were advised that a second follow up to the Leisure Centre audit would be reported back and that the FOI/SAR system is in good shape.

The Chief Internal Auditor explained that deadline dates are set after consultation with the sections, encouraging them to take ownership of the actions. The section could then advise if they felt they were not going to meet the deadline and why. It was felt it was better to delay  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

There were no other items