Agenda item

This is the annual report of the Chief Internal Auditor, summarising the outcome of the Internal Audit work in 2023/24, and providing an opinion on the Council's System of Internal Control. The opinion is one of the sources of assurance for the Annual Governance Statement.

The basis for the opinion is set out in paragraphs 22 – 35, followed by the overall opinion for 2023/24 which is that there is satisfactory assurance regarding Oxfordshire County Council's overall control environment and the arrangements for governance, risk management and control.

Recommendation: That the Audit and Governance Committee consider and endorse the Annual Report of the Chief Internal Auditor.

Sarah Cox, Chief Internal Auditor, presented the report to the Committee.

The report summarised the work that had been completed to form the opinion and contained how the opinion had been reached. The Chief Internal Auditor was very positive for delivering an opinion that was Satisfactory, which was a good position for the Council in terms or arrangements of governance and risk management and control. The opinion was delivered without any interference and independently.

On staffing, a senior auditor had been successfully recruited and would be in post on 4 June 2024. Interviews had been carried out for the audit apprentice. There had been over 100 applications and some very strong candidates, helping to continue with the grow-your-own strategy. The Principal Audit Officer, Sam Egerton was introduced to the Committee.

The Chief Internal Auditor reported that the Internal Audit Plan 2023/24 had been delivered with thanks to Sam Egerton and Katherine Kitashima.

One of the key parts of the opinion that had been delivered was around the IBC Partnership with Hampshire, both delivered the key financial systems. They provided an assurance report each year, but this had not been received yet, however, there were no significant risks highlighted.

During 2023/24, there had been three red reports. All three reports had been received well and robust action plans were in place with good progress being made already to implement actions. The Committee could decide if any of the internal audit reports required a deep dive at the Audit Working Group.

The Committee raised the following points:

·       A deep dive would be interesting to understand the Payments to Providers and the Purchasing Cards audit reports, once they had progressed.

·       There were no specific trends over the years for red reports, they were isolated areas that required further work. The reports were classed by the Team, who looked at all the reports for consistency. There were no concerns for the Chief Internal Auditor.

·       With respect to KPIs, the implementation rate was 86.7%, which was very good.

·       The Committee was concerned that the IBC report had still not been received.

·       The reception of the audit reports had definitely improved over the years and was now taken seriously by Managers.

·       It would be interesting to see the Supported Transport and the Legal Cases audit reports at the Audit Working Group to understand the actions further.

·       The audits were sometimes on request but mainly from a regular to-do list to follow better compliance.

·       Good reassurance was given to the Committee that the correct internal audits were being carried out and the quality of them was very good, picking up on areas that needed to be improved. The Team was thanked.

·       As an organisation, improvements were still required, such as breaking the silos and working more together.

·       There were significant measures required for contracts, so these were being further improved.

ACTION: Audit Working Group to carry out a deep dive, at future meetings and on the advice of the Chief Internal Auditor, for the following internal Audit reports:

§  Payments to Providers

§  Purchasing Cards

§  Supported Transport

§  Legal Cases

RESOLVED: that the Audit and Governance Committee considered and endorsed the Chief Internal Auditors Annual Report.