Agenda item

The Internal Audit Follow Up Report was presented by the Cabinet Member for Corporate Governance and Licensing.

The internal auditors, BDO had prepared their follow up report for Council to consider.

BDO had followed up the outstanding two recommendations from 2023/24 for Responsive Repairs – one has been completed, and the other was ‘in progress’ and acknowledged as good progress being made. The action ‘in progress’ related to the implementation of a programme where 10% of jobs would be formally quality assessed.

BDO had followed up 13 medium recommendations from 2024/25 audits, and five recommendations which were not yet due.

During discussions, Members commented on the following:

-       A timescale on when the ‘in progress’ recommendations would be brought back to the Committee.

The Internal Auditor confirmed each action agreed would go to next meeting of Governance and Audit Committee following the due date within the report.

-       Clarification was sought around the difference between actions that were completed and actions that were completed and operational.

The Internal Auditor confirmed that follow ups would be to ensure the Council had actioned the recommendations from Internal Audit in terms of a testing schedule. All actions that were completed and operation would be under review in the event that they were not being fully met.

-       It was suggested that actions that were ongoing or required further operation input be addressed within the report.

During the Business Continuity Plan (BCP) audit, a training programme had been implemented over two years. The programme had been completed; however, it was ongoing and a rolling action.

-       Concern was raised on the BCP’s management response on the audit relating to business continuity and disaster recovery. The completion of BCP’s had been delayed due to the recent floods within the area. 

-       One Member requested the date on the meeting where Officer’s would deliberate on the BCP for their service area.

The Emergency Planning and Health and Safety Lead confirmed that BCP awareness sessions had taken place on 18 February and 18 March 2025. For Officer’s that attended the 18 February session, a timeframe had been given for their draft BCP be returned, reviewed and a final version to be submitted by 18 April 2025. Officer’s that attended the 18 March session had until 18 April to submit their first drafted BCP for review.

The reason for the delay was due to Officer’s being redeployed to a response team for the floods within the area. A Business Impact Analysis (risk assessment) was in place for the Council, which were in the background for business continuity. The BCP’s were introduced as an additional layer of resilience for business continuity.

The Internal Auditors confirmed that follow-ups were a judgement as to whether enough assurance had been given to complete an action. Assurance was provided that the Auditors were seeing a higher portfolio for this Council on completion rates, which was above average for other Local Authorities.

-       Concern was raised on the audit around response of repairs and that only one employee would undertake quality checks.

The Deputy Chief Executive noted that reference had been made on the audit comment that post check process had commenced on QL system KPI’s were being progressed and monitored monthly, completion had however suffered some delays, now planned to be completed by end of March 2025. The comment did not reference any resource issues of staff.

It was requested that wording of management responses be more specific and detailed in order for the Committee to gain a better understanding.

The Committee noted the findings of the Internal Audit Follow Up Report.