Agenda and minutes
Audit Committee
Thursday, 13th December, 2018 4.00 pm
Venue: Meeting Room 1, Guildhall
Contact: Ken Bickerton Committee Officer
No. | Item |
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Apologies for Absence Minutes: Apologies for absence were
submitted on behalf of Councillors Marc Jones and Nigel Williams. |
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Welcome Minutes: The Chair welcomed Richard
Harris and Michelle Phoenix, Wales Audit Office, to the meeting. |
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Declarations of personal interests, if any Members are reminded of their responsibility, under Paragraph 11 of the Members’ Code of Conduct, to declare the existence and nature of any personal interest in respect of any of the business to be transacted at this meeting Minutes: There were no declarations of
personal interest. |
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Confirmation of Minutes To sign as a correct record the Minutes of the Meeting held on 27 September 2018. Minutes: The Minutes of the meeting of
the Audit Committee held on 13 December 2018 were submitted. Corrections to Minutes: ·
Councillors John
McCusker and Paul Roberts had been marked as absent but had been present at the
meeting. ·
Councillor Ronnie
Prince had been marked as present but had been absent from the meeting. ·
Michelle Richards
should read Michelle Phoenix. ·
Item 26: 5th bullet point Corporate and
Customer Services: ‘Welsh Government Funding’ should read ‘UK Government
Funding’. RESOLVED: That, subject to the above, the Minutes of
the meeting of the Audit Committee held on 27September 2018 be signed as a
correct record. Matter Arising Item 27 Additional Item of
Business: Environmental Enforcement Services in Wrexham: Clarification
was sought on whether the Audit and Scrutiny Protocol allowed for the Audit
Committee to request an update report from the Chair of the Homes and
Environment Scrutiny Committee on the outcome of its deliberations on the
Council’s environmental enforcement duties.
The Topic Selection Form had been requested by Jerry O’Keeffe in his
capacity as Chair of the Audit Committee. It was agreed that, the Head
of Finance further investigates this matter and as an initial measure, a copy
of the original Topic Request Form submitted to the HESC be circulated to all
Members of the Audit Committee. |
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To consider the report of the
Head of Finance. Minutes: The Head of Finance submitted
an updated Work Programme. Michelle Phoenix, Wales Audit
Office, advised that several WAO national
performance reports would be available for submission to the Audit
Committee in the near future RESOLVED – That the Work Programme be noted. |
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Internal Audit Interim Report April - November 2018 To consider the report of the
Head of Finance. Additional documents: Minutes: The
Head of Finance submitted a report (HF/129/18) which enabled consideration to
be given to the Service Manager – Audit and Technical’s
Interim Report for April 2018 – November 2018. The
Audit Lead introduced the report and drew attention to the main findings of the
audit work undertaken during this period.
Fourteen planned audits had been completed during the reporting period,
two of which had been given ‘Red/Amber’ levels of assurance. The Executive Summaries from these audits were
shown in Appendix A2 to the report. The
report also included the counter-fraud work undertaken by Wrexham Internal
Audit Services during the reporting period.
During discussion of the
report Members raised the following matters in particular: ·
It was
noted that there continued to be good support from Heads of Departments and, to
date, there has been little resistance to audits or recommendations. ·
The
Service Manager - Audit and Technical confirmed that no unplanned audits had
been carried out during the reporting period.
The audit of Environmental Improvement Schemes requested by the Head of
Housing and Economy will commence soon.
During discussion of this item, further information was sought on the
type of scheme that could be put forward for consideration under this
scheme. The Head of Finance commented
that a guidance note was available and that he would circulate a copy to all
Members of the Committee. ·
A
Member referred to the forthcoming proposed changes to the Senior Management
Structure and queried whether appropriate governance arrangements would be in
place. The Head of Finance commented
that the restructure would be limited to the third tier management level and
above by the creation of seven Chief Officer roles with some changes to
existing portfolios. The governance
arrangements for individual sections / teams within departments should not be
affected. ·
Reference
was made to the new reporting structures that will be created by the
amalgamation of the existing Children and Adult Social Care Services. ·
Para
2.1 – Table 1 - Summary of Completed Audits:
A Member commented that combining the number of audits given a Green or
Green / Amber level of assurance in the table did not give a true reflection
and was an anomaly. During discussion,
it was noted that questions could be asked of any audit completed during the
reporting period, however, the tendency has been to focus on those audits where
Red or Red/Amber levels of assurance have been given as these could cause
greatest concern. ·
It was
further suggested that ‘Levels of Assurance’ in audit reports could be included
as a topic for a Member training session. ·
Audit
Ref. 2018 -007 Out of County Placements : Assurances were sought that the gaps
in the process did not undermine the safety and security of vulnerable
children. ·
Audit
Ref 2018 – 051 Facilities Management: The Audit Lead provided further
information on this audit. ·
Audit
Ref 2018 - 009 Elected Members: The Audit Lead provided further information on
this audit which had been given a Green/Amber level of assurance. · Ref 2017 - 030 ... view the full minutes text for item 33. |
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Risk Management Arrangements To consider the report of the
Head of Finance. Additional documents: Minutes: The
Head of Finance submitted a report (HF/130/18) which enabled the Committee to
consider the effectiveness of the Council’s corporate risk management
arrangements. In
introducing the report, the Audit Lead reminded Members that this report concerned
the processes for managing risk, not on specific risks or the contents of risk
and control registers. The latter were reported to the Audit Committee through
the Risk Management Highlights Report twice a year. Based on the contents of the Risk Management
Arrangements Update Report reasonable assurance could be given to the Audit
Committee that the Risk Management arrangements were effective. During
consideration of the report the following matters were raised: ·
The Audit Lead confirmed that ‘reasonable
assurance’ was the highest level of assurance that could be given as an
‘absolute assurance’ was not possible. ·
Members referred to the use of Member
and Officer training sessions, the Friday Bulletin and other social-media
outlets to increase Member /officer awareness of the Council’s Risk Management
Policy. ·
Update information was sought on the
number of schools within Wrexham that
keep up-to-date risk registers. ·
Members were advised that schools were
encouraged to maintain risk and control registers and a model register was
provided on the Schools Intranet.
However, this was not a mandatory requirement and some School Governing
Bodies may have alternative arrangements for managing risk. More schools may adopt risk and control
registers following the relaunch of the Model register in the new year, the
development of which is being supported by the Head of Education. ·
Members welcomed the risk management
procedures introduced as part of the Project Management arrangements to ensure
that all proposed non-capital projects had been risk assessed. RESOLVED - That the Risk
Management Arrangements Update Arrangements Report, attached at Appendix A to
report HF/130/18 be noted and used to inform the Audit Committee’s other work
where necessary. |
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Wales Audit Office Annual Audit Letter To consider the report of the
Head of Finance. Additional documents: Minutes: The Head of Finance submitted
a report (HF/131/18) which enabled representative of the Council’s external
auditors (Wales Audit Office) to report directly to Members on their 2016/17
audit and inspection work. Richard Harris, Wales Audit
Office (WAO) commented upon the details
of the Annual Audit letter dated 4
December 2018 issued by the Auditor General for Wales to the Leader of the
Council and the Chief Executive, a copy of which was attached to the
report. He informed the Committee that
the Appointed Auditor had concluded that the Council had: ·
complied with its
responsibilities relating to financial reporting and use of resources; ·
has appropriate
arrangements in place to secure economy, efficiency and effectiveness in its
use of resources; ·
that work to date
on certification of grant claims and returns had not identified significant
issues that would impact on the 2018/19 accounts or key financial systems; ·
has a track
record of managing its finances but the financial challenge will continue over
the medium term. ·
The financial
audit fee for 2017/18 was currently expected to be in line with the agreed fee
as set out in the Annual Audit Plan. Members welcomed the positive
outcomes contained within the letter. RESOLVED – That the Wales Audit Office Annual Audit
letter 2017/18, be noted. |