ITEM AU3 AUDIT committee
MINUTES of the meeting held on 19 November 2008 commencing at 11.00 am and finishing at 12:25 pm.
Present:
Voting Members: Councillor David Wilmshurst - in the chair
Councillor Alan BrydenCouncillor Patrick Greene Councillor Timothy Hallchurch MBE Councillor Ray Jelf Councillor Charles Mathew Councillor Dermot Roaf Councillor John Sanders Councillor Craig Simmons
Other Members in Councillor C. H. Shouler (for Agenda Items 5,6 & 7) Attendance: Councillor Lawrie Stratford (for Agenda Items 5,6 & 7)
Officers:
Whole of meeting: P. Clark (County Solicitor & Monitoring Officer), I. Dyson and G. Malcolm (Corporate Core).
Part of meeting:
The Committee considered the matters, reports and recommendations contained or referred to in the agenda for the meetingand decided as set out below. Except insofar as otherwise specified, the reasons for the decisions are contained in the agenda and reports, copies of which are attached to the signed Minutes.
46/08 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND TEMPORARY APPOINTMENTS
Apologies for absence and temporary appointments were received as follows:
47/08 MINUTES
The Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 24 September 2008 were approved and signed subject at Minute 41/08: ‘Audit Working Group (AWG)-23 July 2008’ to the addition in the preamble of:
‘Councillor Greene asked whether the Audit Working Group was still required. Following officer comment and debate the Committee concluded that the AWG’s informal role was both useful and appropriate to the Committee’s work.’
Minute 33/08-Mr. Dyson confirmed that it was not a requirement for the Committee to ‘agree’ the Audit & Inspection Plan-Audit 2008/09.
48/08 AUDIT WORKING GROUP - 23 OCTOBER 2008 (Agenda Item 5)
The Committee considered a report (AU5) on the following specific matters which had been considered by the Audit Working Group (AWG).
· Annual Governance Statement – Action Plan Progress · AWG208 Internal Audit Quarterly Report. · AWG209 Update on Progress with Accounts Payable Actions and Fairer Charging Actions · AWG210 Review of the work programme. · AWG211 Proposed dates for 2009/10 AWG meetings.
RESOLVED: to
(a) note the report subject to: · the correct spelling of ‘Sanders’ in the list of those present; and: · noting that the AWG Work Programme was amended by the deferral of the ‘Progress report on issues arising from the CIPFA Management Model Review’ from January 2009 to February 2009 (subject to the outcome of Audit Committee consideration on 21 January 2009); and
(b) agree the dates for the 2009/10 meetings.
49/08 COUNTER FRAUD POLICY (Agenda Item 6)
The Committee considered a report (AU6) which introduced the new draft Counter Fraud Policy, a copy of which was attached to the report and was designed to support the Council’s Anti Fraud and Corruption Strategy and the System of Internal Control.
The key comments to the Assistant Chief Executive & Chief Finance Officer arising during debate included: - in the introduction strengthening the words ‘opposed to’ by for example ‘will investigate all suggestions of’; - clarification of the application of the Policy for example to partners and schools; - a suggestion for a case study presentation prior to a future Audit Committee meeting; - under ‘sanctions’ the deletion of ‘may and substitution of ‘will’, - throughout to hyphenate ‘counter-fraud’; - whether there should be a specific reference to e-fraud; - under ‘Stakeholder-Audit Committee’ addition of the words ‘and its Audit Working Group’.
RESOLVED: to approve the draft Counter Fraud Policy subject to any changes made in accordance with the above comments.
50/08 CIPFA FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT MODEL - REVIEW (Agenda Item 7)
Following a review of the Council's financial management arrangements by RSM Robson Rhodes in 2004, the Financial Management Implementation Plan was put in place to address areas of weakness in financial control and monitored by the Audit Committee. In February 2007 the Audit Committee suspended monitoring of implementation of the plan in recognition of the improvement in financial management. Instead the Corporate and Professional Standards Manager was requested to undertake a review of the financial management capability after the planned reorganisation of directorate finance into the Shared Service Centre in 2008. The review was to use the CIPFA FM model and to be reported to the Audit Committee and other stakeholders as a basis for future monitoring and improvement plans. Local Government Futures was engaged to carry out the 2008 independent review based on the CIPFA Financial Model (version2).
The Committee considered a report (CG7) which summarised the findings of the independent review and considered how the improvement agenda could be taken forward. The Chairman, who was also Member Risk Champion and Ms. Paton introduced the report and confirmed that an action plan was being developed to address any issues which had been identified. Ms. Scane drew attention to the year on year improvements which had been achieved by the finance function since the Robson Rhodes Report and which was a credit to all concerned with responding to the huge challenges.
RESOLVED: to:
(a) note the significant progress made to date in improving the Council’s financial management arrangements;
(b) ask officers to report back to the Committee in January 2009 with an action plan developed from the Local Government Futures Ltd report; and
(c) thank Councillor Shouler, Cabinet Member for Finance, the Chief Finance Officer, Ms. Paton and team for their contribution to the improvements in the Council’s financial management since 2004.
51/08 DRAFT WORK PROGRAMME 2009/10 (Agenda Item 8)
The Committee’s terms of reference in the Constitution (Section I) required the Committee to agree a programme of work annually in advance.
The Committee considered a draft Work Programme for the forthcoming year (AU8).
RESOLVED: to adopt the Work Programme 2009/10 subject to: · the decision at Minute 50/08 above (to consider in January 2009 an action plan developed from the Local Government Futures Ltd report); · at the suggestion of the Chairman, a report to the next meeting focusing on the Council’s governance arrangements for safeguarding children (i.e. related to the business of the Audit Committee); and · the County Solicitor & Monitoring Officer confirming that it would be necessary in April 2009 for the Committee to elect a Chairman and Deputy Chairman.
................................................................................... in the Chair
Date of signing.................................................................. 2009
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