| AU.466 | There were no declarations of interest made the meeting.
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| AU.467 | There were no members of the public present to ask questions at the meeting.
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| AU.469 | The Head of Audit and Risk Management presented a report which set out a Charter that had been developed by Internal Audit. The Charter formed the terms of reference and set out the purpose, objectives, responsibilities, scope, status, standards, planning reporting and staffing of the Internal Audit Section.
The Charter set out the practices adopted at Bury and was considered to comply with accepted best practice.
It was explained that if Members accepted the Charter it would be included into the Council Constitution that was currently under review.
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| AU.470 | The Director of Finance and E-Government presented a report reviewing the role, functions, features and structure of the Audit Committee within Bury MBC against recommendations issued by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA).
It was explained that CIPFA recognised that Committees may be different from Authority to Authority depending on the specific political and managerial arrangements in place, and as a result it was not appropriate to prescribe any particular model. However, CIPFA did set out a number of features that should be common to all Audit Committees. These include:
1. A Statement of Purpose.
2. Core Functions.
3. Features.
4. Structure and Administration.
The report submitted considred how the arrangements in Bury compared to the CIPFA guidance and made recommendations where gaps were identified.
Appended to the report was a self-assessment checklist and recommendations for meeting the CIPFA guidance.
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| AU.471 | The Director of Finance and E-Government presented a report setting out the role of Audit Committee within the Council structure and an explanation of the ways that the Audit Committee could discharge its obligations.
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| AU.472 | KPMG submitted a report highlighting the findings of a review of the Social Services budget that had recently been carried out. The approach that External Audit had taken when undertaking the review had been to:-
- Interview key Officers including the Executive Director of Children Services, the Executive Director of Adult Care Services and the Deputy Chief Executive.
- To update progress on the Internal Audit report, Children’s Agency Budget Investigation; and
- Review relevant documentation and reports to the Executive.
The External Auditors explained that they would discuss the findings of the review with Officers to agree an action plan to address the key issues going forward. External Audit would also continue to work with Officers to constructively challenge the delivery of action plans.
It was explained that the review showed that Social Services and the Council had recognised the significant scale of the challenge faced and had also established a Project Board which had advanced the understanding of pressures and potential responses. There had also been the recent development of the Star Chambers which enabled further review and development.
The report contained five recommendations that the External Auditors proposed.
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| AU.473 | Rashpal Khangura from KPMG presented two reports to the Committee setting out the ongoing completed work of KPMG to the Committee. The reports included the work from 2005/2006 programme and the 2006/2007 programme.
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| AU.474 | Councillor E B Briggs, the Chair, explained that there had been a request for a special meeting of the Audit Committee to be held on Tuesday, 26 September at 6.00 pm to consider the amendments to the accounts.
Members of the Committee expressed their unhappiness at the short time available to scrutinise the amendments before having to agree them.
Councillor Briggs confirmed that he would request that an explanation be forthcoming from the Director of Finance and E-Government at the next scheduled meeting as to why the report would not be available to Members until close to the deadline.
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