The Audit Wales Representative presented a report which updated the Committee on financial and performance audit work undertaken, and due to be undertaken, by Audit Wales, and the Audit Wales 2021 Audit Plan.

He explained that Audit Wales had prepared a number of reports for the committee to consider, namely:

1. The Audit Wales Governance and Audit Committee Update (attached at Appendix A to the report) and;
2. Audit Wales 2021 Audit Plan – Bridgend County Borough Council (attached at Appendix B)

The Audit Wales Representative outlined the financial audit work and its progress update carried out by Audit Wales, listed in table one of appendix A.

The Audit Wales Representative outlined the performance audit work and the main changes since the last Governance and Audit Committee meeting. She explained that the performance audit work programme was drawing to a close, with much of the work completed and the remainder of the work to finish by around July 2021. She added that the Review of the Council’s arrangements to become a ‘Digital Council’ had been reflected upon and a report on this had been re-issued. She was confident that the work on this would come to a close shortly.

The Chairperson stated that Audit Wales were due to look at the Carbon Reduction Plans and asked for some elaboration on this. The Audit Wales representative explained that this formed part of the 2020-21 work programme as a component of the assurance and risk assessment. She stated that the scope was to look at BCBC’s early plans for reducing the carbon footprint.

The Audit Wales Representative presented the Audit Wales Plan which set out the programme of work for the financial year. He explained that while he did not anticipate changes to the timings set out in the report, he stated that such changes were possible, due to the negative effects of Covid-19.

The Audit Wales Representative outlined the financial audit section at pages 5-9 of the Audit Wales Plan. He stated that the primary responsibility was to audit the statement of accounts and to reflect whether or not they gave a true and accurate view, by taking a risk-based approach. The financial statement audit risks were set out in Exhibit 1 with the key risk identified being related to Covid-19, including additional cost expenditures and the pressures on staffing.

The Audit Wales Representative added that the fee for the audit work on the accounts was set out on page 13 of the document and was based on the actual fee of last year, which was £6,000 less than the estimate included in last year’s Audit Plan.

The Audit Wales Representative also outlined the Performance Audit Programme 2021-22 which was set out in Exhibit 3 of the report which she summarised as follows:

• Improvement reporting audit – This related to the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act and the duties Local Authorities now had with regards to self-assessment.

• Assurance and Risk Assessment – A presentation was made to CMB and was agreed to focus on the points listed.

• Thematic work – Springing Forward – Examining the building blocks for a sustainable future – This related to how councils were prepared for future challenges and lessons learnt from past challenges like Covid-19.

• Follow-up review – Disabled Facilities Grants – To follow up the Council's progress to address the findings from our disabled facilities grants (DFG) review

• Review relating to the Cwm Taf Morgannwg health partnership following the Council’s transition to the partnership in 2019 – to revisit this work in light of changes over the past 3 years including Covid-19, the scope of which was to be discussed further.

• Statutory building compliance - A short piece of assurance work to assess the Council’s arrangements to improve its levels of statutory buildings compliance.

RESOLVED:           That the Committee noted the Audit Wales Governance and Audit Committee Reports at Appendix A and Appendix B to the main report.