Agenda item

Report of Internal Audit Manager.

The Committee considered the report of the Internal Audit Manager regarding a summary of the activities of Internal Audit for the fourth quarter of the financial year 2014/15.

A list of all final audit reports issued from 1st April to 31 March 2014 and the level of assurance attained were detailed in the report. The Committee was advised that during this quarter, no reports had been issued with an assurance level of inadequate.

Audit work carried out to date against the audit plan was set out in appendix A. The Internal Audit Manager made reference to the main points from the appendix which was the review of Government Connect, the loss of the Computer Auditor and postponement of two audit reviews. Further details were contained in the report.

Further information on reports issued in final during the year with an assurance level below excellent was set out in Appendix B, with any issues highlighted in the reviews which informed the assurance level given. The Committee were reassured that these were the assurance level given at the time the final report was issued and did not reflect recommendations that had been addressed.

A brief explanation for a number of outstanding high and medium priority recommendations from audits, reasons why they had not been implemented along with the month when the next follow up date was due was set out in appendix C.

The comments made by the Corporate Management Team and officers following consideration of outstanding high risks was set out in appendix D. Appendix D was designated as confidential to reduce the risk of opportunities to commit fraud.

The Committee was advised that no frauds over £10k were recorded in the fourth quarter of 2014/15 and only one fraud over £10k had been identified for this year and that was detailed in the report.

Work undertaken in Corporate Fraud including investigations into benefit claims, National Fraud Initiative data matching, non-responses to the single person discount review and the East Sussex Counter Fraud Hub was detailed in the report.

The Internal Audit Manager advised that the work referred to in the report had been used as the basis for the opinion of the overall effectiveness and adequacy of the internal control environment, in addition to other ad hoc work undertaken by the auditors. It was the opinion of the Internal Audit Manager that internal controls across the authority were generally found to be sound.

The Committee was advised that the Public Sector Internal Audit Standards came into effect from 1^st April 2013, therefore the work of the Internal Audit section was assessed for compliance against these standards. It was found that the Internal Audit function was “generally conforming” to the standards with a 97.63% rating. Areas of partial or no conformance were listed in the table attached to the report, in addition to an explanation and actions to be taken where appropriate.

An agreement within the Sussex Audit Group had been reached on how to undertake external reviews. A schedule had been formulated so that each authority’s compliance with the standards could be reviewed by the Internal Audit Manager from two other authorities. The Committee was advised that Eastbourne would be reviewed in 2015/16.

The Committee discussed the draft internal audit plan for 2015/16 that was adopted by the previous membership of the Committee at its meeting on 11 March 2015. The Internal Audit Manager clarified that progress against the plan would be reported on at the next meeting of the Committee.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.