Issue - meetings

To consider the Audit and Governance Committee Annual Report 2020/21 which was reported at the meeting on 21 July 2021. 

36.1          Attention was drawn to the report of the Chief Audit Executive (Head of Corporate Services), circulated at Pages No. 260-273, and Members were asked to note the Audit and Governance Committee Annual Report 2020/21.

36.2          In the absence of the Chair of the Committee, the Vice-Chair explained that until fairly recently, as with other Committees, the Audit and Governance Committee had operated in a virtual world and she offered her thanks to the Democratic Services and ICT teams for ensuring the meetings had run as smoothly as possible. In terms of the annual report, it could be seen from its content that the Committee did not only deal with financial matters; it received a variety of reports from different sources to give assurance that the Council’s systems, procedures and policies were operating as they should be. It had been noted within the report that assurance had been somewhat diluted over the last year, mainly due to the Internal Audit team being redeployed to the COVID-19 business cell to work on the administration of business grants but this was now returning to some normality which would be helpful going forward. As a Committee, it had been updated on the work of the business cell and, at the time of considering the report, over £30m had been paid out to the business community in the Borough which had been a phenomenal effort from staff across Finance, Internal Audit, Revenues and Benefits and the Growth Hub. A key outcome to update from the Committee’s meeting in September was that the Council’s external auditors had signed off the Statement of Accounts without any significant issues arising and had been very complimentary of the Finance team; the Committee had recognised this had been achieved with the team working virtually, with resources also deployed into the business cell and with the added complexity of continually monitoring the budget and completing various government returns as a result of the pandemic which was a major achievement.

36.3          Accordingly, it was

                 RESOLVED          That the Audit and Governance Committee’s Annual Report                                2020/21 be NOTED.

To approve the Audit and Governance Committee Annual Report 2020/21.

17.1          Attention was drawn to the report of the Head of Corporate Services, circulated separately, which attached, at Appendix 1, the Audit Committee Annual Report for approval.

17.2          The Head of Corporate Services explained that the Council’s Constitution required the Audit and Governance Committee to produce an annual report.  The report for 2020/21, attached at Appendix 1 of the papers, included reference to the redeployment of the Internal Audit team to support the business cell; financial reporting; Annual Governance Statement; an overview of the work of the Gloucestershire Counter Fraud Unit and the external auditors; safeguarding arrangements, the outcomes of a Food Standards Agency audit; and the serious and organised crime framework.  The report would be presented to Council by the Chair of the Audit and Governance Committee following approval.

17.3          It was

RESOLVED          That the Audit and Governance Committee Annual Report 2020/21 be APPROVED.