Agenda item

(Copy Herewith)

Councillor Beardsworth addressed the committee with regards to the report. She asked if officers could explain why all the permanent staff in the asset management team had left and been replaced with interim staff. She expressed concern that the team no longer had sufficient local knowledge to deal with issues if they arose. In addition she commented that there still seemed to be a number of issues outstanding within the action plan that had gone past their completion date.

The Interim Strategic Finance Manager presented the report to the committee and explained that the information contained in the report and action plan had been requested by the committee at previous meetings. This was to allow the committee to see progress against the recommendations made by KPMG in their annual ISA260 report which was presented to the previous meeting. The committee were drawn to the fact that a further recommendation had been added by KPMG since the last report.

The committee were informed that the draft letter of representation circulated to committee members at the previous meeting had been finalised, and then signed by the Chair of the committee and the S151 officer, with a copy attached to the report.

In addition the Interim Strategic Finance Manager stated that appendix 3 to the report outlined minor amendments to the Statement of Accounts on the finalisation of the external audit, these included correcting rounding errors and improving the narrative to include links to future capital plans and improved information around officers’ remuneration. The amended Statement of Accounts had been signed under delegated authority by the Chair of the committee and the S151 officer.

The committee welcomed the report and asked a number of questions to which the officers replied, these included:

·         Payroll staff would be taking reconciliations into consideration when the payroll process is transferred from LGSS in the New Year. In addition the current LGSS payroll staff would complete a reconciliation of information held up to the point of transfer.

·         There was still work to do around ensuring that systems were kept updated when staff left employment, as there had been previous cases of staff still being on the system after they had left. Business system managers were now taking more time to do routine checks on the system to ensure they had been updated correctly.

·         Even though some of the items outstanding had gone past their completion date there were no actions that were deemed time critical at this stage.

The committee were re-assured that all these actions were important to the council and being given priority. There was a reputational impact if they were not carried out and completed.

RESOLVED:

1.    That the Audit Committee approved the action plan developed by the statutory S151 Chief Finance Officer to make improvements in line with the 2015/16 ISA2600 Recommendations, and noted progress achieved to date

2.    That the Audit Committee notes the Letter of Representation and minor amendments to the 2015/16 SoA.

3.    That directors of services present back to the Audit Committee on the impact of interim staff on certain service areas.