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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Rooms 2/3, Civic Offices, Angel Street, Bridgend, CF31 4WB

Contact: Mr Mark Anthony Galvin  Senior Democratic Services Officer - Committees

Items
No. Item

16.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

To receive declarations of personal and prejudicial interest (if any) from Members/Officers in accordance with the provisions of the Members’ Code of Conduct adopted by Council from 1 September 2014

Minutes:

None

17.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES pdf icon PDF 84 KB

To receive for approval the minutes of a meeting of the Audit Committee dated 29 June 2017.

Minutes:

RESOLVED             The minutes of the meeting held on 29th June 2017     were approved as a true and accurate record subject to an amendment to reflect that the Corporate Risk Register would be reported to the 28th September 2017 meeting.      

18.

BRIDGEND COUNTY BOROUGH COUNCIL CORPORATE ASSESSMENT FOLLOW-UP REPORT BY WALES AUDIT OFFICE pdf icon PDF 61 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

S Barry (Wales Audit Office) presented the Wales Audit Office’s report to the Audit Committee for noting and for information. He explained that the Corporate Assessment provided a position statement on the Council’s capacity and capability to deliver continuous improvement. It examined the track record of performance and outcomes as well as examining the key arrangements that were necessary to underpin improvements in services and functions.

 

The Wales Audit Office carried out a follow-up audit earlier this year. The audit examined whether the Council was making effective progress against the proposals for improvement issued in the Corporate Assessment report.

 

He reported that the Council was developing appropriate plans for the future and subject to aligning ICT and human resource functions with the transformation programme, was well placed to secure improvement.

 

The Auditor General concluded that “the Council has responded effectively to the issues we raised in the Corporate Assessment and has either fully implemented our proposals for improvement or has made progress against them”. A summary of the findings was presented along with further information in relation to the Council’s progress against each proposal for improvement in Appendix 1 of the report.

 

A member queried the use of RAG ratings and suggested that ratings should be harmonised across different shared services rather than used in isolation. S Barry explained that RAG ratings would not be used for comparison and they were originally used together with supporting information as an internal tool. A solution would be to improve the quality of the narrative. It was for scrutiny to identify if the information they were given was providing the key messages and what was being delivered.

 

A member referred to sickness levels within the authority and suggested inviting the Chair of the relevant scrutiny committee to give an update to Audit Committee on plans to reduce sickness levels.

 

A member referred to the website and the 1 star rating it had been given. Members were advised that this had been acknowledged and work was underway to redesign the website.  

 

RESOLVED             1) Audit Committee received the report and noted the

                                content and the improvement that had been made. 

 

                                2) Audit Committee agreed to request that the Chair of the relevant scrutiny committee give an update on plans to reduce sickness levels to a future meeting. 

                            

19.

FINAL STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS 2016-17 pdf icon PDF 106 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Head of Finance presented a report on the final Statement of Accounts for 2016-17 which was now due to be certified by the external auditors, Wales Audit Office (WAO), the associated Letter of Representation of the Council and the final audited Annual Return for the Harbour Authority.

 

WAO updated Members on their main findings and summarised the audit work carried out in respect of the 2016-17 financial year and presented their Audit of Financial Statements Report, which required the Appointed Auditor to report these key findings to those charged with governance

 

The unaudited Statement of Accounts for 2016-17 was previously presented to Audit Committee on 29 June 2017 for noting and had been signed by the Responsible Financial Officer on 19 June 2017. During the intervening period, the external audit had taken place resulting in a number of amendments being made to the financial statements.

 

The Head of Finance explained that the audited Statement of Accounts 2016-17 was attached to the report and was required to be signed off as presenting a true and fair view of the financial position of the Council as at 31 March 2017 by 30 September 2017.

 

The Council Fund and earmarked reserves balances as at 31 March 2017 presented in the pre-audit Statement of Accounts were detailed in the report.

 

There had been no adjustments as a result of the external audit that had impacted on the year-end figures.  However the WAO Audit of Financial Statements Report included a number of findings from the audit which should be brought to the attention of the committee.

 

The Head of Finance explained that the Auditor General was not seeking absolute assurance that the financial statements were correctly stated but he was adopting the concept of materiality. The quantitative levels at which he judged a misstatement to be material was £4.5 million.

 

Wales Audit Office reported that at the time of the audit 20% of councillors had not submitted their related party return as required. Subsequently, all of the outstanding returns were rigorously pursued and by 19 September only one return remained outstanding.  

 

A Final Letter of Representation was required by the Appointed Auditor to complete the process and enable the accounts to be signed off. This was included as Appendix B to the report.

 

Appendix D contained the Annual Return for the Porthcawl Harbour Authority. Appendix E containedthe audit letter that confirmed that there had been no adjustments to the draft return presented to Audit committee in June 2017. As a result, there was therefore no requirement for Audit Committee to re-approve this Annual Return. The Return would be published on the Council’s website.

 

Appendix F contained the Annual Return for County Borough Supplies which ceased operation on the 31 March 2016 but had some additional transactions within 2016-17 which needed auditing. Appendix G contained the audit letter on County Borough Supplies which now needed approval by this Committee.

 

There was a legal requirement for the Statement of Accounts to be signed by the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

20.

THE CORPORATE RISK ASSESSMENT 2017-18 pdf icon PDF 106 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Risk Management and Insurance Officer presented a report informing the Audit Committee of amendments to the 2017-18 Corporate Risk Assessment which had risen out of the review undertaken in July 2017 and other changes to risks that had been made subsequently.

 

The Audit Committee’s Terms of Reference required the Committee to review, scrutinise and issue reports and recommendations on the appropriateness of the Authority’s risk management, internal control and corporate governance arrangements.

 

The 2017-18 Corporate Risk Assessment was approved by Council on 1 March 2017 and was fully aligned with the Council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy and Corporate Plan. In accordance with the Council’s Corporate Risk Management Policy, it was a requirement that the Corporate Risk Assessment was considered and reviewed by Senior Management Team (SMT), Cabinet and Audit Committee, and was one of the

components reviewed as part of the Council’s quarterly Corporate Performance Assessment framework.

 

The Corporate Risk Assessment had been reviewed by SMT and the updated document was attached to the report. It identified the main risks facing the Council, the likely impact of these on the Council’s services and the wider County Borough, what was being done to manage the risks and allocated responsibility for the Council’s response.  Since it was reviewed by SMT the Medium Term Financial Strategy, Waste, Educational Attainment, Local Government Reorganisation and Collaboration risks had been updated to reflect important changes.  In addition the risk assessment also incorporated a new risk in relation to an unfunded NJC pay claim for 2018-2019.  Appendix 2 demonstrated, via footnotes, the links with the Corporate Plan.

 

The Risk Management and Insurance Officer provided background to the first two risks, “Making the cultural change necessary to deliver the Medium Term Financial Strategy” and “Supporting vulnerable children, young people and their families”.

 

The Audit Committee discussed the way the individual risks were presented and suggested that the Committee select a risk of particular interest and that the “risk owner” be asked to present the risk to a future meeting. Members discussed the risks and asked for a presentation from the Communities Directorate. 

 

Members also discussed the level of reserves required to make the Council resilient, aspirational targets, arrangements for disabled children moving into adult social care, consultation on acceptable areas for budget reductions, safe staffing levels and recognised the huge amount of work required to secure a Community Asset Transfer.

 

Members highlighted Homelessness, Maintaining the Infrastructure and Health and Safety as areas of interest where the risk owner could be invited to future meetings to provide further information.     

 

RESOLVED         1) Members considered the changes to the Corporate Risk Assessment that had been made and agreed to receive a further report in January 2018 concerning the 2018-19 Corporate Risk Assessment and review of Risk Management Policy.

 

                             2) Members requested that a risk owner form the Communities Directorate be invited to a future meeting to present details of the risk to Audit Committee.         

21.

INTERNAL AUDIT - OUTTURN REPORT - APRIL TO AUGUST 2017 pdf icon PDF 66 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chief Internal Auditor presented a report informing the Audit Committee of actual Audit performance against the five months of the audit plan covering April to August 2017.

 

The 2017/18 Internal Audit Plan was submitted to the Audit Committee for consideration and approval on the 27th April 2017. The plan outlined the assignments to be carried out and their respective priorities and provided for a total of 1,085 productive days to cover the period April 2017 to March 2018.

At present the overall structure of the Section was based on 18 Full Time Equivalent Employees (FTE’s).  However, at the end of the Financial Year 2016/17, the Section was carrying 7.5 FTE vacant posts, which had subsequently increased to 9.5 FTE vacant posts.  

At the end of the period, 13 reviews / jobs had been completed and closed, 11 of which had provided management with an overall substantial / reasonable audit opinion on the internal control environment for the systems examined.  Of the remaining 2 reviews, 1 identified significant weakness to such an extent that only limited assurance could be placed on the overall control environment and one, although necessary, was closed with no opinion being provided due to the nature of the work undertaken.

The Chief Internal Auditor explained that there was a shortfall of 189 productive days on the minimum expected as a direct result of staff vacancies and long term sickness absence. The level of vacancies and the ability to recruit was of serious concern however a re-structure of the service was underway and contingency plans were proceeding to address the shortfall. 

 

RESOLVED             That the Committee gave due consideration to the Internal Audit Outturn Report covering the period April to August 2017 to ensure that all aspects of their core functions were being adequately reported. 

 

22.

UPDATED FORWARD WORK PROGRAMME 2017-18 pdf icon PDF 58 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chief Internal Auditor presented the updated Forward Work Programme for 2017/18 for the Audit Committee to consider and approve.

 

During the discussion on the BCBC Corporate Assessment follow-up report, members requested that the Chair of the relevant scrutiny committee give an update on plans to reduce sickness levels to a future meeting. During this item Members were also advised that there would be a further report on the processing of housing benefit claims.

 

Following the presentation of the Corporate Risk Assessment 2017-18 report, Members requested that a presentation be made to a future meeting on the Corporate Risk Assessment in relation to the Communities Directorate.

The Chief Internal Auditor advised that she would update the Forward Work Programme for the next meeting of the committee.

 

RESOLVED             That the Forward Work Programme be approved subject to the amendments agreed at the meeting.      

23.

URGENT ITEMS

To consider any other items(s) of business in respect of which notice has been given in accordance with Rule 4 of the Council Procedure Rules and which the person presiding at the meeting is of the opinion should by reason of special circumstances be transacted at the meeting as a matter of urgency.

Minutes:

None

 

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