Issue - meetings

Mr Dulay from BDO, the Council’s internal auditors presented the Internal Audit Progress Report, which reflects the progress made against the annual Internal Audit programme along with any significant recommendations with regards to the audits completed during this period.

Three audits have been completed as follows:

Housing Benefits received a substantial opinion for both design and operational effectiveness and there were no areas for concern. Mr Duly complemented officers on the accuracy checks for new claimants and the time taken to process new applications, which currently averaged around 12.88 days on a target of 14 days.

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery received a substantial opinion for design and a moderate opinion for operational effectiveness. Mr Dulay reported that the moderate opinion was due to the Business Impact Assessments were not completed accurately for 4 out of 7 forms reviewed, with inconsistencies identified in guidance document, templates and a sample of completed assessments. It was noted that the management team disagreed with the moderate rating of the operational effectiveness and this is noted in the report.

The Chairman asked whether the audit programme and performance controls were on track for completion. Mr Dulay referred to the table, Performance on Internal Audit in Appendix A, explaining that the feedback from the four most recent surveys was positive, with the average audit experience scored 4.25 out of 5.

It was RESOLVED that the Group note the Progress Report for 2021/22 (Appendix A) prepared by the Council’s Internal Auditor.