Issue - meetings

To note the Annual Internal Audit Report & Opinion 2018/19 and provide any observations to the Leader of Council and the Chief Executive.

The Committee considered the Annual Internal Audit Report and Opinion for the 2018-19 Municipal Year.

The Council’s Head of Internal Audit is required to provide an annual opinion on the overall adequacy and effectiveness of the organisation’s risk management, control and governance processes. This was introduced by the Executive Member for Corporate Direction and Governance, Councillor V. Lewanski. He explained that his new portfolio covered performance planning and would look at how the Council’s performance indicators linked in to its Corporate Plan. Future work included focus on organisational development.

For the 12 months ending 31 March 2019, the Head of Internal Audit’s opinion for Reigate and Banstead Borough Council was that:

The organisation has an adequate and effective framework for risk management, governance and internal control. However, our work has identified further enhancements to the framework of risk management, governance and internal control to ensure that it remains adequate and effective.

A representative from the Internal Auditors (RSM) was present to answer questions.

There were a number of questions and comments on the report, relating to the following topics:

·       Procurement and contracts – It was noted that the Council only received ‘partial assurance’ for its procurement and contracts work. More detailed information was requested on the extent of the problem that had been identified first in 2017 and what work was being carried out to make changes. RSM identified that the full detail was in reports provided to officers as part of the Internal Audit Service Reviews in 2018/19. Detailed findings were available to Members via the eMembers website (under Performance Information > Internal Audit Reports > Internal Audit Service Reviews). An independent review of the processes around procurement and the application of the rules was currently being scoped and costed. This was close to being completed and would result in a full work plan. Members would be provided with an update on progress to date outside of the meeting. It was confirmed that the audit included all procurement that the Council undertakes.

·       Assurance levels – It was identified that the assurance levels set out in Appendix B of the report: Summary of Internal Audit Work completed 2018/2019 ranged from: No assurance, Partial assurance, Reasonable assurance and Substantial assurance. These were the four standard levels of opinion that RSM used within all internal audit reports. RSM confirmed that there were no ‘No Assurance’ opinions in 2018/2019 and explained that the opinion grading was designed to give an overall sense of compliance in different services. This fed into the overall annual opinion which was consistent with previous years and with similar organisations.

It was identified that an ‘Advisory’ assurance was one-off advice used when officers had asked Internal Auditors to look at an area of work, measure it against best practice and offer guidance on areas to improve.  For example, it had looked at the Council’s Commercial Governance review and provided additional comments to give further reassurance before going to the Executive.

·       Grants Funding – it was noted that the audit  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6