Issue - meetings

The report of the Director – Finance and Corporate Services is attached.

Mr Gurpreet Dulay, from BDO, the Council’s internal auditor presented the Internal Audit Progress Report, which summarised the progress made against the annual Internal Audit programme, together with any significant recommendations with regard to the audits completed during this period.   

Mr Dulay confirmed that four reports from the 2020/21 Internal Audit Annual Plan covering: Pest and Dog Control; Recruitment and Retention; Covid-19 Grants Assurance; and Cyber Security had been completed, details of which were highlighted in the Appendix to the report.  The Group was advised that the report summarised the opinions that had been given, which were very positive, with each being given either a Moderate or Substantial rating.  Mr Dulay advised that in respect of Pest and Dog Control and Recruitment and Retention, a few areas for improvement had been noted, details of which were highlighted in the Appendix.  The Group noted that work on the current year was progressing well, and timings to bring reports to future Governance Scrutiny Group meetings were set out in the report.  

Members noted that 2,833 cyber risks had been identified and questioned if that was an appropriate figure for the size of the organisation.  Members also noted that the report had confirmed that all the management actions had been agreed; however, it would be helpful to know if all the concerns had been addressed.

Mr Dulay responded by advising that although that number of cyber risks had been identified, it was not an unreasonably high number to have, and the Council had an extremely high completion rate of 98.62% against those actions.  In respect of the management actions agreed, Mr Dulay confirmed that those actions would be completed and then BDO would follow up on those.

In conclusion, the Chairman referred to the challenging situation that the team had faced during Covid and congratulated them on completing the audit in time.

It was RESOLVED that the Internal Audit Progress Report for 2020/21 be noted.