minutes

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 19 December 2012 (Minute Nos. 454 - 462) were taken as read, approved and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

declarations of interest

No interests were declared.

part b minutes for information

grant certification report 2011/12

Steve Golding (Grant Thornton) introduced the Certification Work Report 2011/12. He explained that the in-house auditors had certified two claims and returns; the Housing and Council Tax Benefit Subsidy and the Council's Business Rates (NNDR) return.

Mr Golding advised that the Council was performing well and there were no significant matters arising from their certification of claims and returns.

Members welcomed the report.

audit progress report 2012/13

Steve Golding (Grant Thornton) introduced the Audit Progress Report 2012/13.

Mr Golding explained that with regard to Value for Money a Financial Resilience Report would be presented to the September Audit Committee meeting and that a benchmarking exercise was being undertaken, comparing the Council's financial performance with similar authorities.

Members expressed concern over the benchmarking techniques to be used as they believed neighbouring authorities could not be regarded as 'similar' given the specific circumstances that face Swale.

internal audit operational plan

The Head of Audit Partnership introduced the report which set out, at Appendix I, the one-year operational Internal Audit plan.

In response to queries from a Member, the Audit Manager advised that more detailed information could be provided within the plan and that if significant risks were identified, the Committee could request to review them. The Head of Audit Partnership confirmed that the was happy for Members to highlight any areas of concern so that he or the Audit Manager, could discuss them with the respective Head of Service, for potential inclusion in the plan.

strategic risk register - action plan refresh

The Audit Manager introduced the report which set out amendments to the Council's Strategic Risk Register and Actions Plans prior to 6-monthly reporting to Cabinet, in accordance with the agreed framework.

The Audit Manager drew attention to the table on page two of the report which set out the summary of the risk scores which had been reviewed and amended by the risk owners with target risk scores proposed.

The Audit Manager advised that two risk scores had worsened; Risk 1 Welfare Reform and Risk 6 Safeguarding. She explained that the score for Risk 1 had worsened due to changes in welfare reform. With regard to Risk 6, the newly appointed Safeguarding Officer had identified risks such as the introduction of an internal reporting system and ongoing economic pressures that were impacting on public services.

Some Members raised concern about the impact changes to Welfare Reform would have in relation to staff workloads.

public sector internal audit standards

The Head of Audit Partnership introduced the report which provided a summary of the new internal audit statutory standards which come into effect from 1 April 2013.

The Head of Audit Partnership explained that an external assessment of the service would be undertaken every five years and the cost was likely to be around £3,000 which would be shared between the four authorities of the Partnership.

audit committee work programme

The Committee noted the Work Programme.