Agenda item

              The Head of Internal Audit Shared Services presented a report thatinformed the Committee of the outcomes of the performance for 2018/19 of Internal Audit.  Members noted that the report presented to them was prepared as at 31^st December, 2018.

              The Head of Worcestershire Internal Audit Shared Service provided a verbal update of the current position to date and highlighted the key issues as follows:

·                    Final reports with regard to the review of Universal Credit  and Shopmobility, would be reported to the Committee in April 2019;

·                    There were ongoing reviews with regard to car parking, debtors, creditors and payroll. Reports summarising the outcome of these reviews would be presented to the Committee in April 2019;

·                    In addition, updates on reviews of transport and housing  would be presented to the Committee at a future meeting for Members’ consideration;

·                    There was ongoing work in relation to the National Fraud Initiative. There was a slight overspend with regard to the corporate audits. Due to the nature of some of the reviews, additional resources had been allocated resulting in additional days. Any variation would had been agreed with the Executive Director of Finance and Resources;

·                    Performance measures had been revisited as of 25^th January, 2019 and it was confirmed that all action had been completed;

·                    Disability Facility Grants - follow up had taken place on 28^th January, 2019 and the progress of this would be reported back to the Committee in April 2019;

·                    Robust action had been put in place to address the issues in regard to the transparency of the welfare budgets. A follow up audit would be implemented on 31^st March, 2019 and subsequently reported back to the Committee;

·                    A follow up audit that took place in January 2019 with regard to homelessness had found that the one remaining medium priority recommendation had not yet been implemented as the Council was awaiting procurement of a new system. This had been recorded as a risk with the IT Housing Project Board. Assurance had been given to the Council that under GDPR data protection requirements, as Officers were procuring a new system; they were covered at this point in time.  A follow up would be undertaken to ensure that this was being actioned;

·                    With regard to St David’s House, a follow up took place in January 2019 which confirmed that all certification requirements had been satisfied and all recommendations had been implemented. No further follow up was therefore required.

The Committee was informed that there was better engagement between Internal Audit and the Corporate Management Team (CMT) and a clear action plan was in place to address any concerns going forward.  Any outstanding actions would be signed off at the next CMT meeting.

Grant Thornton informed the Committee that Rubicon Leisure Limited was aware that the Audit, Governance and Standards Committee had responsibility for monitoring their work on behalf of the Council.  The Head of Worcestershire Internal Audit Shared Service stated that the service was accountable for carrying out the audit work in respect of Rubicon Leisure Limited and Members would be provided with a limited internal audit provision for the company at the Committee meeting in April 2019.

RESOLVED

that the Internal Audit Progress Report be noted.