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Agenda item

Internal Audit Plan Monitoring Report

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

Minutes:

28.1          The report of the Chief Audit Executive (Head of Corporate Services) provided an overview of the internal audit work completed during the period.  Members were asked to consider the work undertaken and the assurance given on the adequacy of the internal controls operating in the systems audited.

28.2          The Head of Corporate Services confirmed that internal audit was now operational and audits in relation to cemeteries, car parks and the arrangements for managing the GDPR risk were well underway with a view to bringing those opinions to the meeting in December.  In terms of the audit opinions before Members today, it was noted that the transformation of the bulky waste service had been extremely successful - the service had gone from being in deficit to generating a surplus with waiting times reduced from 6/7 weeks to one week and the introduction of an online booking system.  Whilst there had been found to be a reasonable level of control, the first recommendation was around changing the parameters within the online system that had been built within Liberty Create to ensure that personal data was only being held for an appropriate amount of time and a deadline of January 2023 had been set in relation to that.  The second recommendation was in relation to monthly meetings with the Council’s contractor to reflect good practice and ensure there was an audit trail for decisions as well as picking up on things recommended in the audit, for example, the current contract only contained one Key Performance Indicator (KPI) around recycling so consideration should be given to introducing others, for instance, customer wait times.  The audit had found that bulky waste charges were all being approved in accordance with Council policy.  In terms of fees, there had been a glitch whereby a small number of customers were charged less for the service than they should have been and a fix was identified to resolve the issue before Christmas.  It was noted that customers in receipt of benefits were entitled to a 50% reduction in charge but the audit had identified a couple of occasions where the claim number did not relate to the current claim at the time of booking, therefore, it had been recommended that Customer Services check the benefit system to ensure the customer was receiving benefits at the time of booking.  It had also been recommended that sample checks of refunds be undertaken by the Customer Services Team Leader and that more information be placed on the Council’s website so customers were aware that refunds would only be given up to 48 hours prior to their scheduled collection.  A limited opinion had been issued in relation to invoices not being reflective of the services delivered as a review of invoices had highlighted an increase in charges from February 2022; it was recommended that these should be formalised by agreeing a variation to the contract.  Furthermore, this had highlighted that invoices submitted to the Council were not really checked by the team for accuracy so it was also recommended that all bulky waste invoices be verified prior to payment.

28.3          A Member indicated that the new service had been running for 18 months so there was bound to be some learning from it and he congratulated the teams involved on providing a better quality of service to residents.  Another Member echoed those sentiments but raised concern that the KPI was for ‘percentage of items recycled: up to 70%’ which she found very woolly as this could mean only 1% were actually being recycled.  In terms of the recommendation at Page No. 135 in relation to information being added to the webpage by December 2023, she asked why this would take so long.  In response, the Principal Trade Waste Officer advised that a meeting was arranged with the Business Transformation and Customer Services Teams for tomorrow and she was confident that there was nothing in the recommendations which could not be implemented quickly.

28.4          With regard to the audit of the E-Ploy system, the Head of Corporate Services advised that recruitment had previously been a paper-based process but applicants could now be tracked on a dashboard and the HR Team did not have to print off application forms etc.  This had been a fundamental change in the way the organisation was able to recruit.  The audit had found the majority of processes to be sound and there was a clear audit trail for each stage of the process.  One recommendation had been made around the retention of HR files.  The HR and OD Manager indicated that it was good to have a positive audit result and one of the things that had been looked for when procuring the system was the ability to have checks and balances in place so she was happy to see that working.  The third audit was around treasury management and it was noted that, as at 31 August 2022, the Council had £33.8m of investments and £30.8m of borrowing.  The Treasury Management Strategy had been found to be appropriate for the investment and borrowing activities and was reviewed on a regular basis; the investment ledger and general ledger were reconciled on a monthly basis; and investments had been placed with justification, supported with appropriate documentation and only made with approved investment counterparties within time and financial sector limits.  Two recommendations had been made around treasury management records and version control on documents to ensure that the Treasury Management Policy was reviewed on an annual basis.

28.5          It was

RESOLVED           That the internal audit monitoring report be NOTED.

Supporting documents: