Internal Audit To consider the Internal Audit work undertaken and the assurance given on the adequacy of internal controls operating in the systems audited during 2015/16.

9.1             The report of the Corporate Services Group Manager, circulated at Pages No. 28-40, was the final monitoring report of the financial year and summarised the remaining work undertaken by the Internal Audit team during 2015/16.  Members were asked to consider the audit work completed and the assurance given on the adequacy of internal controls operating in the systems audited.

9.2             Members were advised that full details of the work undertaken were attached at Appendix 1 to the report and a list of audits within the 2015/16 Audit Plan, and their progress to date, could be found at Appendix 2 to the report.  The Corporate Services Group Manager advised that there were two audits outstanding, economic development grants and housing benefit, and they would be reported during the current financial year.  Appendix 3 to the report contained a summary of all audit recommendations and their status. 

9.3             Members were informed that there were three control objectives in relation to the ICT Helpdesk audit: procedures and service level agreements are documented for the ICT helpdesk; helpdesk calls are logged, classified and allocated to an officer for resolution in a timely manner; and a central knowledge base exists for both users and helpdesk staff.  All objectives had been achieved to a satisfactory level of assurance and Members were advised that a new ‘Freshservice’ self-service portal had been created for staff to report any ICT issues or requests; this helped the team to track user issues and assign tasks etc.  A number of recommendations had been made including the documentation of supporting procedures; a periodic check of open tickets; and further promotion of the self-service portal.  It was noted that, whilst a number of telephone calls were still being received by the helpdesk, there had been a 25% reduction since the self-service portal had been introduced.  The Property team was now looking to roll out a similar system to deal with requests for refreshments, room layouts etc. 

9.4             Ubico and Tewkesbury Borough Council were jointly responsible for delivering the trade waste service, policy and charging: the Council was responsible for debt recovery, promotion, and marketing and invoicing; and Ubico was responsible for contracts and database maintenance.  The audit of the service had resulted in two ‘limited’ opinions and one ‘unsatisfactory’ opinion had been given.  In terms of ensuring that commercial waste charges were approved and reviewed on a regular basis, the audit had identified that, although charges had been updated for 2015/16, no review had been undertaken for 2016/17.  As the Council was aiming to become more commercially aware it was considered that the charges should be supported by a business case.  In addition, the financial data provided by Ubico was very high level, and more detailed information was required to provide a greater understanding of where expenditure was being incurred.  The audit also noted that, although it was something which the Council was proposing to introduce for domestic waste, there was no offer of a separate recycled trade waste collection service in respect of paper, plastic, metal and glass and, as such, there was potential to be non-compliant to legislation.  In terms of the raising of invoices and recovery of debt, there was a satisfactory level of assurance in respect of the administration of the database and the way payments were received, however, there was no formal recovery action being taken by the Environmental Heath team.  Furthermore, the performance of the service was not currently being measured using the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), of which there were two concerning the percentage of collections completed on schedule and percentage of service complaints received against weekly collections, so an unsatisfactory opinion had been issued in respect of performance monitoring.  

9.5             In terms of the management response, some operational requirements would be dealt with in year; the Council Plan included a fees and charges strategy for all services and the Corporate Services Group Manager indicated that his team would help to resolve the issue with performance monitoring and ensure that the information was included within Ubico’s overall performance management report which was taken to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.  Members were advised that one of the Council Plan actions was to review the trade waste service in its entirety in order to make it more commercially viable as there was scope to generate additional income.  The Finance Manager advised that £75,000 of debt had been outstanding in February 2016 and her team had worked with Ubico to reduce that to £11,000.  A new, more automated, system had now been introduced whereby a letter was sent after 28 days informing the customer that payment was late; if payment was not made after a further 28 days, a second letter was sent advising that the service would be suspended if payment was not received within 28 days and, if payment was not made by that deadline, the service was suspended with immediate effect.  A Member queried why this was not being addressed by Ubico and was informed that the Council carried out the invoicing as it did not have to charge VAT; Ubico could do the invoicing but it would have to charge VAT and therefore would be a greater cost to the Council.  The Member went on to question whether this could be given further consideration and assurance was provided that a complete review of the service would be undertaken in accordance with the action in the Council Plan; this would include operational requirements, such as debt recovery, as well as a more strategic review of the future direction of the service.  A Member suggested that it might be beneficial for the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to undertake the review and the Corporate Services Group Manager undertook to raise this with the Corporate Leadership Team.  It was noted that, on the basis of the limited and unsatisfactory opinions which had been issued, a further update would be brought to the Committee at its meeting in December.

9.6             With regard to Appendix 3, which set out the outstanding audit recommendations, Members were informed that target follow-up dates had been included on a quarterly basis.  During quarter 4, all recommendations had been completed and implemented for car parks, complaints, Disabled Facilities Grants and housing benefit debtors.  With regard to tree inspections, one recommendation had not been implemented in respect of establishing a database of tree inspections, however, the Asset Manager had provided verbal confirmation that he was in the process of addressing this. 

9.7             Having considered the information provided, it was

RESOLVED          That the Internal Audit Plan Monitoring Report be NOTED.