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Issue - meetings

Review of effectiveness of Internal Audit

Meeting: 06/03/2019 - Audit & Governance Committee (Item 19)

19 Review of effectiveness of Internal Audit pdf icon PDF 275 KB

3.50

 

Report by the Monitoring Officer.

 

Each year the Monitoring Officer undertakes a survey of senior managers about the effectiveness of Internal Audit at Oxfordshire County Council.  There is no longer a statutory requirement for a formal annual review of the effectiveness of Internal Audit, however this Committee last year agreed that the Monitoring Officer should continue to undertake this survey and report its outcomes to the Committee.  This report summarises the responses to the survey. In short, the survey of the extended County Council Management Team continues to reveal a positive picture of the effectiveness of Internal Audit during the year 2017/18.

 

The Committee is RECOMMENDED to note and comment upon the report.

Decision:

Recommendation agreed.

Minutes:

Nick Graham introduced the report on the survey process.  Members questioned the usefulness of the survey and if it should be conducted only every two or three years.

 

Sarah Cox responded that 16 responses were received out of 26.  Internal Audit has a good working relationship with senior management and so the feedback did not reveal anything new.  Internal Audit are subject to an external assessment against Public Sector Internal Audit Standards, once every five years, the results are reported back to the Audit & Governance Committee. This assessment includes a view on engagement of Internal Audit with senior management.

 

Councillor Paul Buckley noted that Internal Audit has a tricky role to play in an organisation and it is useful to get feedback from senior management.

 

The Chairman suggested that it would be useful to ask for some qualitative information in the survey.

 

RESOLVED: to note and comment upon the report.