The Chief Internal Auditor introduced a report, the purpose of which was to summarise for Members the findings of the audits completed by the Internal Audit Shared Service.  Appendix B summarised those finalised audits carried forward from 2013/14.

            The Chief Internal Auditor reported that a recent procurement audit was carried out by Newport City Council on behalf of the Authority and other member Authorities, in accordance with the Welsh Purchasing Consortium arrangement for the provision of agency staff.  A reasonable audit opinion was given and a recommendation made in relation to ensuring that appropriate checks are carried out on agency staff.

            An audit was carried out on the Carbon Reduction Committee (CRC) Energy Management Return, which was given a substantial audit opinion.  It was recommended that Management should ensure that there is adequate segregation of duties for staff in the Energy Management Section.

The Building Maintenance Service was issued with a reasonable audit opinion; however the process for out-of-hours calls was over-complicated due to the unnecessary involvement of the Highways Section which resulted in duplication and differing recorded details.

An audit on taxi licensing was given a substantial audit opinion, and it was noted that a number of strengths and areas of good practice were identified within the Licensing Department.  She reported that there was good and open communication between Officers of the team and queries raised during the audit testing were seen to be actioned immediately.

In relation to the audit carried out on Park Income, the Chief Internal Auditor explained that the main issue was that a review should be carried out on all leases to ensure they were still relevant; also leases should be introduced where none currently existed.

Home to School Transport was one area highlighted for potential savings in the MTFS.  It was given a substantial audit opinion, with a number of recommendations.  She explained that following a review of bus contracts for 2014/15 and the indicated potential savings, instances where operators are tendering for more routes than they had the capacity to fulfil should be identified.  The main recommendation was to ensure that operators who worked across local authorities were not at risk of trying to cover schools in both areas at the same time.  She advised that there needed to be closer liaison with neighbouring authorities to ascertain what contractors they were using.

She reported that a reasonable audit opinion had been given to the audit carried out on the SEWTA Grant Verification and despite varying information being received from SEWTA, no recommendations were required.

The Learner Transport Project was given a reasonable audit opinion.  She advised that this was an on-going review and would be revised after consultation due to go out this month, was completed.

The Chief Auditor informed Members that the Corporate Director -Resources had requested Internal Audit to review the Porthcawl Harbour Project.  The project forms part of a wider plan to regenerate Porthcawl as part of the Swansea Bay Water Sports Centre of Excellence Programme.  It was given a reasonable audit opinion with a number of recommendations relating to future project management and looked at from the lessons learned.  She explained that information from the lead council, Swansea, was not forthcoming, which resulted in assumptions being made.  However, she reported that the situation had now changed.

A Member asked whether an audit would be given a substantial audit opinion if there were no recommended actions from the work carried out in a review, e.g. Learner Transport.

The Chief Auditor explained that it was not an exact science and a review such as the Learner Transport it could be given reasonable assurance, yet contain a large selection of recommendations and only the significant points were reported.  It has to have an element of judgement as to how it is working.

RESOLVED:         That the Committee gave due consideration to the implementation of recommendation report to ensure that this aspect of their core functions is being adequately reported.