Agenda and minutes

Venue: The Lockinge, The Beacon (formerly Wantage Civic Hall), Portway, Wantage, OX12 9BY

Contact: Ron Schrieber tel. 01235 540306; e-mail:  ron.schrieber@southandvale.gov.uk 

Items
No. Item

39.

Notification of substitutes and apologies for absence

To record the attendance of substitute councillors, if any, who have been authorised to attend in accordance with the provisions of standing order 17(1), with notification having been given to the proper officer before the start of the meeting and to receive apologies for absence. 

Minutes:

Councillors Mohinder Kainth and Angela Lawrence had sent apologies for absence. 

40.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 70 KB

To adopt and sign as a correct record the minutes of the meetings of the committee held on 24 September 2014 (previously circulated) and 20 January 2015 (attached). 

Minutes:

RESOLVED: to adopt as correct records the minutes of the committee meetings held on 24 September 2014 and 20 January 2015 and agree that the chairman signs them as such.   

41.

Actions arising pdf icon PDF 39 KB

To review the actions arising from the last two committee meetings and receive an update on progress. 

Minutes:

The committee reviewed the actions arising report of the head of finance.  The committee agreed to remove actions relating to public consultation on the comprehension of financial documents, and introducing a new process to monitor systemic control weaknesses.  The remaining items were retained on the list. 

 

RESOLVED: to retain the following items on the actions arising list:

·         To call the Building Control manager to a future meeting to answer questions on outstanding actions from a previous audit

·         To include the corporate complaints procedure in the councillors’ induction programme following the elections in May 2015

42.

Declarations of interest

To receive any declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests in respect of items on the agenda for this meeting.  

Minutes:

None

43.

Urgent business and chairman's announcements

To receive notification of any matters, which the chairman determines, should be considered as urgent business and the special circumstances, which have made the matters urgent, and to receive any announcements from the chairman. 

Minutes:

None

44.

Statements, petitions, and questions from the public relating to matters affecting the Audit and Governance Committee

Any statements, petitions and questions from the public under standing order 32 will be made or presented at the meeting.

Minutes:

None

45.

Internal audit activity report quarter four 2014/15 pdf icon PDF 184 KB

To consider the audit manager’s report.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The committee considered the audit manager’s report on internal audit activity in the fourth quarter of 2014/15, being 1 January to 5 March 2015 when the audit report was sent for publication.  During that period, internal audit had completed six audits and two follow-up audits.  Three of these had received limited assurance ratings from internal audit and therefore were presented to the committee for consideration. 

 

Payroll 2014/15

 

The payroll audit in 2014/15 had received limited assurance due to some weaknesses in the control system.  The auditor had recommended changes to improve the system, most of which had been accepted by the Payroll Team Leader at Capita, the council’s payroll contractor, and by the Human Resources Manager.  Both officers were called to the meeting to answer the committee’s questions. 

 

The committee expressed concern that two former payroll employees had not been removed from the list of authorised payroll system users.  However, it was noted that Capita had since changed its procedures to ensure this did not happen again. 

 

The committee noted that only one of the auditor’s recommendations had not been implemented: the introduction of a new staff overtime claim form.  This would be completely shortly. 

 

Councillors believed that this was an important service to keep under review and noted that internal audit planned a further audit in 2015/16. 

 

Section 106 planning agreements, commuted sums, and Community Infrastructure Levy 2013/14 and 2014/15

 

Internal audit presented an audit report on the council’s management of Section 106 planning agreements, commuted sum payments from developers, and the Community Infrastructure Levy for the years 2013/14 and 2014/15.  The Planning Policy Manager and the Planning Policy Officer attended the meeting to answer the committee’s questions. 

 

Three of internal audit’s recommendations had yet to be implemented.  While money received from developers was shown in the register of planning agreements, expenditure on the various schemes relating to each development had not been included.  To link the expenditure to the register would require a partial re-write of the system software, which would take time.  However, officers planned to do this work. 

 

The auditor had recommended that a regular reconciliation of agreements recorded within the system should be undertaken with general ledger transactions to ensure income was recorded accurately.  The planning officers had agreed to introduce an annual reconciliation procedure.  There was also a recommendation to introduce consistent record-keeping, which had yet to be implemented. 

 

The committee believed that improvements had been made to the management of Section 106 planning agreements and commuted sum payments, and asked that as part of the follow-up audit, checks were made that money from developments was being correctly applied to the schemes identified in the planning agreements.  This would be important also when the Community Infrastructure Levy was introduced.  The committee noted that this issue had been taken up by Scrutiny Committee, which received annual monitoring reports. 

 

Temporary accommodation – second follow-up audit

 

The committee noted that internal audit had conducted a second follow-up audit on the temporary accommodation service to check whether its  ...  view the full minutes text for item 45.

46.

Internal audit management report quarter four 2014/15 pdf icon PDF 55 KB

To consider the audit manager’s report.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The audit manager presented the internal audit management report for the fourth quarter 2014/15.  This summarised progress against the audit plan up to 5 March, and summarised the priorities for the first quarter in 2015/16. 

 

The committee noted that following the fire at the Crowmarsh Gifford offices, the audit manager was requested to be part of the business continuity team to re-establish council services.  This took all of the manager’s time for several weeks.  The remainder of the internal audit team continued with their audit work and made progress against the audit plan on the key financial audits.  However, it was noted that not all audits planned for 2014/15 (particularly non-key audits) would be completed by 31 March due to the fire disruption to internal audit and other services.  The committee noted that at its next meeting, officers planned to report on internal audit’s performance against the audit plan. 

 

RESOLVED: to note the internal audit management report for the fourth quarter 2014/15. 

47.

Internal audit plan 2015/16 pdf icon PDF 71 KB

To consider the audit manager’s report, for approval.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The audit manager presented a draft internal audit plan for 2015/16 and sought committee’s approval of it.  The plan set out the audits planned for 2015/16, some of which were joint audits with South Oxfordshire District Council.  The report also set out the evaluation process used to establish priorities and how the plan was compiled.  The committee supported the audit plan. 

 

RESOLVED: to approve the internal audit plan 2015/16. 

48.

Certification of claims and returns annual report 2013/14 pdf icon PDF 42 KB

To consider the report of the external auditor, Ernst & Young.

Minutes:

Mick West, the council’s external auditor from EY (Ernst & Young), presented the certification of claims and returns annual report for 2013/14.  He summarised the key findings.  The council had made a housing benefits subsidy claim of £27,921,157.  Following the audit, this had been reduced by £8,691, which he believed to be a small fraction of the overall claim.  The fee for this work was £15,488. 

 

The committee noted the report. 

49.

External audit plan 2014/15 pdf icon PDF 74 KB

To consider the report of the external auditor, Ernst & Young.

Minutes:

Mick West, the council’s external auditor from EY, presented the external audit plan for the council for 2014/15.  As part of that audit work, EY would pay attention to the possibility of management override of controls, and consider the effect of the fire at the Crowmarsh Gifford offices on the closure of the 2014/15 accounts, and on how the council responded to the fire.  This would include looking at what information was lost in the fire, and what information was used to re-establish services.  The audit would also look at the materiality of errors, and look at how the council used its resources to provide value for money.  However, no significant risks had been identified by EY at this stage.  The audit fee for this work was estimated to be £62,839 plus an estimated fee of £16,650 for the certification of the housing benefits subsidy claim. 

 

The committee noted the report. 

50.

Audit and governance work programme pdf icon PDF 75 KB

To review the audit and governance work programme (attached)

Minutes:

The committee reviewed its work programme that illustrated matters for consideration at committee meetings in 2015/16.  The committee noted that internal audit was currently reviewing the effectiveness of the council’s business continuity arrangements following the fire at the Crowmarsh Gifford offices, which provided a real-life test of the council’s resilience.  This report would be presented to the committee at a future meeting. 

 

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