Agenda item

Report of the Head of Shared assurance services (enclosed)

The Head of Shared Assurance Services presented a report that advised the Committee on the work undertaken in respect of the Internal Audit Plans for Chorley Council and Shared Services for the period August to December 2016 and its outcomes. The report also gave an appraisal of the Internal Audit Service’s performance to date. At this stage, the Audit Plans were on target to be achieved and the majority of performance indicators would either be achieved or exceeded.

A summary of all the audit work completed since the last meeting was provided together with and control issues that had been identified. Three audits had received a control rating of Red and the Committee discussed each of the areas in turn:

Project Management Red (7) – This review focussed on the application of the Project Management Toolkit and the utilisation of the Council’s project management software – MyProjects. All projects included with the review were on track and there is comprehensive guidance and extensive documentation for Senior Responsible Officers and Project managers to use. However, neither the Toolkit nor MyProjects are consistently being used across the authority.

The Director of Policy and Governance attended the meeting to explain that following a meeting of the Senior Management Team, it had been decided that SMT would monitor monthly usage of the MyProjects system for all Corporate Strategy projects and the Transformation Programme Team would monitor any Transformation Strategy projects.

Information Governance Red (9) - This review assessed the arrangements and controls being put in place by management to develop the Council’s information governance framework to deliver an effective security culture and ensure ongoing compliance with its information security obligations. It was however, recognised that there were a number of positive solutions and processes in place and a commitment to address a number of the key issues identified during the audit.  The Chief Executive commented that the Council were adhering to the correct security frameworks when dealing with its information and had lots of controls and balances in place. This was another example of the correct documentation not being completed to evidence what was being done. The Chief Executive had been tasked with making officers aware of the importance of completing all relevant paperwork.

Review of Fuel Consumption Red (7) – The purpose of the review was to determine that sound arrangements were in place for the management and control of fuel consumption. It was established that since the last review had taken place, a number of controls that had been put in place had lapsed that included, the Chest not being utilised for all fuel procurement and fuel usage not being monitored or analysed per individual vehicle. It was highlighted that there had been some staffing changes to the management structure, there are systems in place that are not being used and now that these had been highlighted, it was expected to improve quickily.

Members were concerned that there seemed to be systems in place in a number of areas that were not being followed to by staff and although it was accepted that people were stretched and that this was part of the issue, the importance of following correct procedure and process was of paramount importance to the Council’s governance arrangements and has such the Committee felt that officers needed to place greater importance to ensuring that the correct systems were adhered to.

The Committee were informed that in line with the latest Internal Auditing practices, from 2017/18 they would be developing their approach to audit assignments by asking managers and staff to compile risk registers for each function/system under review. It was hoped that this would encourage a greater ownership of risk management within services and thereby improve the level of internal control operating throughout the Council

RESOLVED – That the information in the report be noted.