The Chief Internal Auditor reported on the actual Internal Audit performance against the seven months of the audit plan year covering April and October 2016.  She informed the Committee that 647 actual days had been achieved, which was 33 days more than the expected target of 614 days.  At the end of the period, 17 reviews / jobs had been completed and closed, 15 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 weaknesses that only limited assurance could be placed on the overall control environment and one, was closed with no opinion being provided due to the nature of the work undertaken. 

The Chief Internal Auditor also reported on the overall structure of the Section which is based on 18 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) employees.  She stated that the Section was carrying 4 FTE vacant posts, which has now increased to 6 FTE vacant posts, but arrangements are in place to recruit to address some of the shortfall in staff resources.  The service had already been streamlined and it continued to apply lean auditing risk based methodologies to its plan of work.  She informed the Committee that the service was not able to recruit to one post due to the significant amount of mentoring required had the candidate been appointed.  The Chief Internal Auditor stated that a re-structure may be required but as productivity was likely to slip a review of the annual plan will be undertaken this would not prevent her from giving an annual opinion.  She informed the Committee that contact had been made with the Wales Audit Service to ascertain whether they had a resource the Internal Audit Service could use.  She stated that a report would be brought to the next meeting of the Committee with an update on the staffing of the service. 

In response to a question from the Committee, the Chief Internal Auditor stated that the service did not at present employ trainees as it would impact on the productivity of the section in the time it would take staff to train.  She stated that the previous trainee had since qualified.  The Chief Internal Auditor informed the Committee that the difficulties in recruiting staff could be attributed in part to the significant amount of change and uncertainty in local government.  She stated that performance had slipped, but the service remained in the top quartile. 

The Committee commented on the need for absence management training to be mandatory for managers as part of performance management.  The Section 151 Officer commented that as a result of staff in his service attending absence management training, absenteeism had reduced, despite two significant re-structures having taken place in the last year.  He stated that the number of absence management courses would need to be checked and informed the Committee that participants attending courses are encouraged to talk through examples of sickness. 

The Chief Internal Auditor also reported that quotations for the independent external assessment had been evaluated and an award of contract had been made to CIPFA.  The external assessment will commence in January, with a view to the outcome of the review being reported to this Committee no later than April.

RESOLVED:         That the Committee considered the Internal Audit Outturn Report covering the period April to October 2016 to ensure that all aspects of their core functions are being adequately reported.