Issue - meetings

10.35

Report from the Chief Internal Auditor.

This is the annual report of the Chief Internal Auditor, summarising the outcome of the Internal Audit work in 2018/19, 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 Committee is RECOMMENDED to consider and endorse this annual report.

Recommendation agreed.

Sarah Cox summarised the report and introduced the new Senior Auditor, Nigel Ford.  She responded to issues raised by Members as follows:

·         There is no guidance on standard language to use in giving the opinion on the Council’s System of Internal Control.  There is no higher rating than ‘satisfactory’.  In the past, a ‘qualified’ opinion was delivered when the Chief Internal Auditor was not entirely satisfied with the outcome.

·         It was noted that the heading on the table on Agenda Page 17 should refer to 2018/19.

·         Changes may be made to the Audit Plan during the year with the agreement of the Committee and the completion of the plan is measured against the amended plan not the original plan.

·         A different external firm was used this year to provide extra resources for the internal audit.  There were performance and quality issues with their work and there have been discussions about this with the company.

·         The timing of the deferred audit on the Back-up and Recovery system in IT at Quarter 3 is related to the expected implementation of the new solution.

Members welcomed the report and asked the Chief Internal Auditor to pass on their thanks to her team.

RESOLVED: to endorse this annual report.