The Chief Internal Auditor presented a report to Committee that summarised for Members the findings of audits recently completed by the Internal Audit Shared Service as shown at Appendix A to the report.

            The Chief Internal Auditor then gave a resume on each of these audits.

            In relation to Purchasing Cards, she confirmed that the Audit Opinion on this work area was deemed as reasonable where nine recommendations had been made as a result of the audit, all of which had been agreed/actioned by the Department.

            In terms of the follow-up audit on Shared Lives, which had previously received an Audit Opinion of Limited, she confirmed that progress had been made in this area, but not to such an extent that warranted any improvement in this Opinion.  A new Manager was now in place and it was suggested that this person has further time to make the improvements recommended, and in turn, be invited to the Audit Committee at its October meeting to give feedback on hopefully by then on how the Service has improved.

            With regard to the follow-up audit on Supported Living, the Chief Internal Auditor advised that Audit Opinion of the Service was deemed reasonable, and a further report on this area would be presented to Committee in November.

            Member Payments, Gifts and Hospitality had been given a Substantial Audit Opinion, as had the audit carried out in respect of the implementation of Job Evaluation.

            The audit of Telecare had been categorised as Limited Audit Opinion, with a number of significant recommendations being made in relation to staff training on a specific IT system crucial to client management, and gaining assurance from third party operators as to employees DBS status.  She confirmed that a follow-up audit would take place betweent July - September.

            The next audit related to Inter-Authority Placements, and the Chief Internal Auditor confirmed that Audit Opinion in this work area was also classed as Limited with a particular problem in place regarding file management and responsibility.  Two files could not be located at the time of the review and this continues to remain the case..  Auditors will maintain a watching brief of this service area.

            The audit of the area of Social Media had been assessed as Reasonable as had the audit in respect of Display Screen Equipment (DSE) and eye tests, only in terms of the latter, there was no control in place to ensure the employee claiming the voucher was the same employee having the eye test.

            The audit of Communities First had been considered Reasonable, though added the Chief Internal Auditor, the Wales Audit Office had also undertaken their own separate review of this area of work.

            The School Balances audit had been given a Substantial Audit Opinion whilst the audit of Taxation had been considered Reasonable with strengths identified, and only two recommendations made by the Internal Audit Shared Service as a result of this audit.

RESOLVED:         That Committee noted the report and the findings arising from the audits of the above service areas.