Agenda item

The Head of the Worcestershire Internal Audit Shared Service explained to Members that this was a progress report on the internal audit work for 2020/2021 for the period 1^st April to 31^st October 2020.

Members’ attention was drawn to the following:

·         Two reviews had been finalised since the last meeting of the Committee.

·         Seven reviews, on the core financials, were moving through the scoping and testing stages, and once they were finalised, they would be presented to the Committee.

·         A review was undertaken on behalf on Worcestershire County Council on Disabled Facilities Grants.

·         National Fraud Initiative data set uploads had been ongoing from the beginning of October for Redditch Borough Council with regard to 2020/2021.  Data set uploading would continue until December 2020.  

·         The outcome of the Quality Assurance Improvement Plan.

As referred to, during the previous agenda item, by the Engagement Lead for Grant Thornton, Covid-19 had had an impact on carrying out audits.

Members were informed that Internal Audit had adopted a new way of working, although not fully remotely.  Officers were looking at how best they could ensure that they undertook as much of the 2020/2021 audit programme as possible over the next few months.  There could be a need to roll forward 1 or 2 lesser risk audits into 2021/2022.  Officers would endeavour to provide Members with an overview of the current 2020/2021 audit plan and a draft of the proposed audit plan for 2021/2022.  It was noted that it was easier to liaise with officers in the workplace than by remote working, but he assured Members that the quality of the work for audit reviews had remained high, very much focused on risk and the impact and implications that had.

Some additional work was required to be undertaken in respect of Covid-19 grants administered for Redditch Borough Council to businesses and residents but that there was still work to be done on this in order to identify and deal with any potential frauds associated with these particular grants.  This would be featured in next year’s audit plan and resources would be allocated for this ongoing work in order to ensure the protection of the public purse as best as we could.

In response to Members, the Head of the Worcestershire Internal Audit Shared Service highlighted from their perspective this was a high-risk area for all authorities.  The National Fraud Initiative (NFI) required an upload of a data set which would be checked against other data sets from a national perspective and they would report back any potential matches which ‘may’ indicate fraud.  This would then be looked at by either internal audit or the Revenue Services Managers team, to ensure that the public purse was protected from any grants that had been fraudulently claimed or paid in error.  Officers would look to recover any such money.

Members agreed that the work on Covid-19 grants and the National Fraud Initiative to be included on the Committee’s Work Programme.

RESOLVED that

the contents of the Internal Audit Progress Report be noted.