Agenda item

Report of Internal Audit Manager.

The Committee considered the report of the Internal Audit Manager regarding the Annual Governance Statement which detailed the key elements of the systems and processes of the Council’s governance arrangements.

The Annual Governance Statement was a report produced at the end of the year on the control environment of the Council and was a statutory document that accompanied the statutory Statement of Accounts once adopted. The Statement provided a structure in which to consider the Council’s governance arrangements and their effectiveness. This ensured that major control issues were identified and action would be taken to address those issues.

Appendix 1 of the report detailed the framework for gathering the assurances and how that affected the relationship with partners, stakeholders and the community. Following the framework should ensure that the Council met the six principles of corporate governance.

A timetable for the gathering of assurances to produce the Annual Governance Statement was set out in Appendix 2 of the report.

Appendix 3 showed the Manager’s Assurance Statement which included coverage of the Bribery Act, Safeguarding, Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) and frauds over £10K. The statement was intended to cover the operational, project and partnership responsibilities of the Heads of Service. It could also be used to highlight any concerns and subsequent actions required to improve governance throughout the Council.

Once these statements had been completed by the relevant Heads of Service they were passed through the Chief Executive and Deputy Chief Executive. The comments made on the statements were considered for inclusion in the Annual Governance Statement.

The governance issues and subsequent action plan had been compiled from a number of sources including reports of internal and external audit, the Corporate Management Team (CMT), Scrutiny and Standards reports, external review bodies, managers assurance statements, evidence from the Council’s Monitoring Officer and review by the Chief Finance Officer, Deputy Chief Executive and Internal Audit Manager.

The Internal Audit Manager advised that completed Managers’ Assurance Statements had been returned from all Heads of Service and from Eastbourne Homes Limited. Six of these statements mentioned minor concerns over capacity and capability of staff. The Council continued to redesign its services through the “Future Model” programme, and were involved in a shared services agreement principally with Lewes District Council. Significant asset projects were also underway and collectively these carried a cumulative risk. The Committee was advised that the Council were regularly updated on its Sustainable Service Delivery Strategy and was monitoring and reporting ongoing performance.

The Council’s Corporate Management Team agreed that this should be mentioned in the body of the statement but did not represent a significant issue as it was being adequately monitored. As a result no significant risks had been reported this year.

Once the Statement had been approved by the Audit and Governance Committee it would be given to the Chief Executive and Leader of the Council to sign before it is published alongside the Statement of Accounts.

The Committee queried the risk of bribery and how that was monitored. The Internal Audit Manager responded that this was monitored through the Council’s Anti-Fraud and Corruption policy. With a policy in place it was down to managers to ensure that any risk of bribery was being controlled. In addition, a check of managers and the controls in place would be covered through the role of audit.

RESOLVED: (Unanimous) That the Annual Governance Statement for 2014/15 as appended to the report be approved.