Agenda and draft minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Paul Prior and Kathryn Haworth..

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the previous meeting.

To Minutes of the meeting held on 16^th January 2019 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

In relation to Minute 21 Councillor Kelly confirmed that she had received a response from the Government Minister and would share this.   Imelda Grady drew Members attention to a review by the Committee on Standards in Public Life which had been sent to the Prime Minister and which recognised that the current sanctions available to local authorities were insufficient and that local authorities should be given the power to suspend councillors without allowances for six months in more serious cases or for serial misconduct.   

Councillor Campbell said that in the interim officers were looking at small adjustments to the code of conduct.

To receive an update from the External Auditor.

Marianne Dixon from the external auditors presented the audit progress report for the year ending 31^st March 2019.

The report detailed the financial statements audit and the current interim audit and confirmed that there were no issues as at February to bring to the attention of the Committee but that work would continue throughout March.

She also reported progress on the external auditor’s opinion on value for money and confirmed that the Council had proper arrangements in place and that the value for money conclusion would be reported in the Audit Findings Report by the deadline of July 2018.  

She drew members attention to two reports from the National Audit Office on governance issues which gave an overview of the roles and responsibilities of local auditors and the arrangements to provide local taxpayers and Parliament with assurance that local authority spending achieves value for money and that local authorities were financially sustainable.

IT WAS AGREED

That the report be noted.

To inform  members of the work undertaken by Internal Audit for the period 1^st October 20 31^st December 2018.

The Internal Audit Manager presented the work undertaken by the Internal Audit team for the quarter 3 period 1^st October to 31^st December 2018. 

He reported that three audit reports had been produced in respect of petty cash, fraud risk assessment and Write-Offs during quarter 2.

The performance statistics were detailed in appendix 2 to the report and showed that a number of audits had been started and completed which would form part of a later quarter statistics.  

Other activity  included progress with The National Fraud Initiative and the data from several different services had been matched and these were currently being checked.

In respect of petty cash Councillor Graham asked if the council was nearing to going cashless.  She acknowledged that the amounts of petty cash were low and therefore the risk was also low but that the paperwork involved in processing claims might not be cost effective.  The Internal Audit Manager explained that some services still needed to make minor cash purchases but that the use of a PCard was more commonplace.

Councillor Campbell asked what had prompted an audit of petty cash and the Internal Audit Manager said that a lot of transactions were taken place and  and concerns raised about the level of control.  He said that this had been addressed and clear levels of financial responsibility had been established and implemented.

IT WAS AGREED

That the report be noted.

To consider the Work Programme for the current year.

The work programme was noted