Agenda item

The Draft Internal Audit Plan 2025/26 was presented by the Cabinet Member for Corporate Governance and Licensing.

In order to demonstrate good governance, the Council must maintain an adequate, effective internal audit plan, provided by the Internal Auditors. They had produced an indicative plan presented on 22 January 2025 and the Committee were provided with the final plan at this meeting.

The Internal Auditors outlined important financial areas within the 2025/26 plan which should provide assurance to the Committee:

·       Treasury management

·       Financial systems

·       Payroll

From 1 April 2025, the operational standards that Internal Auditors complied with would change to Global Internal Audit Standards in UK Public Sectors, however, this would not change any information provided by BDO.

-       It was queried how much flexibility was within the plan in the event of an emergency issue that required attention as a priority.

-       One Member queried the level of cooperation and expected link between the Internal and External Auditors on particular projects.

-       Further reassurance was sought on the change of standards. External Auditors had previously had a change of standards which led to some delays and a higher workload.

The Internal Auditors confirmed that 27 days had been allocated within the 220 days plan for contingency purposes which allowed 12% of the total days to be flexible for any issues that may occur during the financial year. It was clarified that an explanation of any changes to the plan would be brought back to the Committee to amend the plan.

Internal and External Auditors would have annual meetings, discussions throughout the year and would work in conjunction with one another on topics of significant importance and information sharing.

-       It was queried whether financial systems had been previously monitored.

The Internal Auditor clarified that the monitoring of financial systems was not mandated through the standards. The change of the financial system for 2025/26 meant that an increased focus on financial systems would take place for the plan.

The Internal Auditors focused on the internal controls of an organisation and External Auditors would focus on assessing the accounts and provide a true and fair opinion on whether accounts were true and valid.

The Deputy Chief Executive clarified that since April 2024, External Auditors for the Council were KPMG.

-       It was suggested whether the plan be amended to show the last time an area was audited.

The Internal Auditor confirmed there were satisfied with including the time in which an area was last audited within the future plans, in consultation with management.

-       One Member queried governance failure as a strategic risk and what depth of information that would include.

Risk 13 of the Council’s Strategic Risk Register provided an overview of the Council’s own definition of governance failure. The risk set out potential causes, controls and enablers that the Council had in place. The Internal Auditors would take the risks from the risk register to include within their plan, audits would be set out into the subsequent years that may coincide with the relevant risk.

It was proposed, seconded and AGREED:

To approve the Draft Internal Audit Plan 2025/26 attached at Appendix A.