Meeting documents

Audit Committee
Tuesday, 24th February, 2009 7.00 pm

Date:
Tuesday, 24th February, 2009
Time:
7.00pm
Place:
Town Hall, Bury
 

Attendance Details

Present:
Councillor S P Penketh (in the Chair);
Councillors I Ahmed, K Audin, J Harris, S Hurst, A K Matthews, K Rothwell and M J Wiseman.
Co-opted:
Pat Jones - Greenhalgh, Executive Director of Adult Care Services.
Julie Gonda, Adult Care Services

No members of the public attended the meeting
Apologies for absence:
Councillor A J Garner.
Buttons
Item Description Decision
Open
AU.679 MR AIDAN LOYNS
Preamble for item AU.679
All present at the meeting observed a minutes silence as a tribute to Mr Loyns.
AU.680 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
 Councillor Rothwell declared a personal interest in item 7 - Finance and Performance Monitoring 2008/2009 in relation to any reference to Council Housing as the tenant of a Council property.
AU.681 PUBLIC QUESTION TIME
 There were no members of the public present to ask questions at the meeting.
AU.682 Minutes of the Meeting held on Tuesday, 9th December, 2008 7.00pm
 Delegated decision:

That the Minutes of the meeting of the Audit Committee held on 9 December 2008 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.
AU.683 FINANCE AND PERFORMANCE MONITORING 2008/2009 - MONTH 9
Preamble for item AU.683
It was agreed:

1. That the contents of the report be noted.

2. That the Draft Recovery Plan be included as an item on the next agenda.

3. That Pat Jones - Greenhalgh be thanked for attending to report to the Committee.
AU.684 TRAINING - MANAGING THE PERFORMANCE OF INTERNAL AUDIT.
Preamble for item AU.684
Delegated decision:

That the Head of Internal Audit be thanked for his informative presentation.
AU.685 QUARTERLY REVIEW OF GOVERNANCE STATEMENT
Preamble for item AU.685
Delegated decision:

1. That the contents of the report be noted.

2. That the Audit Committee would continue to receive updates on a quarterly basis.
AU.686 GIFTS AND HOSPITALITY
Preamble for item AU.686
Delegated decision:

1. That the contents of the report be noted.
AU.687 EXTERNAL AUDIT PROGRESS REPORT
Preamble for item AU.687
Delegated decision:

That the contents of the report be noted.
AU.688 EXCLUSION OF PRESS AND PUBLIC
 Delegated decision:

That in accordance with Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following items of business since they involved the likely disclosure of exempt information, relating to any action taken, or to be taken in connection with the prevention, investigation and prosecution of crime.
Exempt
AU.689 INTERNAL AUDIT ANNUAL PLAN 2009/2010
  • (Attachment: 6)A report from the Head of Internal Audit
  • |
    (Attachment: 7)Appendix A
  • |
    (Attachment: 8)Appendix B
 
AU.690 INTERNAL AUDIT PROGRESS REPORT
  • (Attachment: 9)A report from the Head of Internal Audit
  • |
    (Attachment: 10)Appendix A
  • |
    (Attachment: 11)Appendix B
  • |
    (Attachment: 12)Appendix C
  • |
    (Attachment: 13)Appendix D
  
AU.691 INTERNAL AUDIT REPORTS - MEMBERS' FEEDBACK
  • (Attachment: 14)A report from the Head of Internal Audit
  
The meeting started at 7.00 pm and ended at 8.50 pm

Preamble

Preamble
ItemPreamble
AU.679Councillor Penketh reported on the recent death of Mr Aidan Loyns. Mr Loyns was an independent Member of the Standards Committee and as such had been co-opted to this Committee for the 2008/2009 Municipal Year.


AU.683Mike Owen, Director of Finance and E-Government presented a report informing Members of the financial position of the Council for the months of April 2008 to December 2008 in respect of the Revenue Budget, Capital Programme and Housing Revenue Account. The report provided projections, based on current trends and information, of the likely outturn at the end of 2008/2009.

Mike reported to Members on the issues facing the authority in relation to financial reporting.

Pat Jones-Greenhalgh, Executive Director of Adult Care Services had been asked to attend to report on the financial issues facing Adult Care Services and plans to deal with those issues.

Pat explained the difficulties faced by Adult Care Services and described the types of cases they dealt with and the fact that the possible cost to the authority of providing the levels of care required could be between £35,000 - £100,000 per year, per case.

It was explained that all cases were reviewed by a funding panel to ensure that the levels of funding would meet the needs required and that where possible clients were repatriated back into the borough if possible which also reduced the amount spent.

It was possible to anticipate some of the new cases such as transition from Children’s Services to Adult Services but there would always be cases that were not expected. It was also explained that life expectancy had risen a great deal over the years which also had an effect on the budget due to the growth of demand of older people.

Pat also reported that the homecare review that had been carried out had been very successful and had improved the service and reduced the level of agency staff now used.

The Project Board held regular monthly meetings to look at the budget and the Service would also be submitting a Priority Investment Reserve bid.

Councillor Penketh thanked Pat for attending the meeting and recognised the hard work of all the staff within Adult Care Services. Members of the Committee were invited to ask questions and comment on the information provided:-

•Councillor Rothwell asked whether out of borough placements would be brought back into the borough. It was explained that there had been proposals for a unit to be established which would offer placements for people with severe learning and/or physical disabilities as well as an out-patient service. Councillor Rothwell asked whether this was going to happen.

Pat Jones - Greenhalgh explained that all out of borough placements had been re - assessed and that the authority were looking to provide an in house service which would be located at Fir Street. It was explained that because of the complex needs involved it would take a lot of work for the unit to be established in order that the service was fit for purpose.

•Councillor Penketh asked whether new cases would now be accommodated in house.

Pat explained that it was the patients choice where they were located and the service had to meet the individuals needs.

•Was there any funding for the transition cases?.

It was explained that there was no budget for transition cases, KPMG the external Auditors for the authority would be reviewing the situation surrounding transitions and it was hoped that they would give some options.

Mike Owen explained that the service had produced a draft recovery plan and suggested that the Audit Committee receive this at their next meeting.
AU.684Barrie Strothers gave a presentation explaining performance management within the Internal Audit Section.

Barrie explained that Internal Audit are governed by the CIPFA Code of Practice which incorporated 11 standards broken down into 200 elements. It was explained that each Local Authority Audit Section had a statutory duty to comply with the Code of Practice and complete the Compliance Checklist. Bury complied with 93% of the code and would be aiming to achieve higher than this in the future.

It was also explained that there was Audit Benchmarking which was carried out on 3 levels:- Internal level, AGMA level and a national level.

Barrie presented Members with examples of some of the information that was requested by CIPFA within the Compliance Checklist, he also explained the findings of Bury’s final report from CIPFA which gave comparisons with other unitary authorities.

The findings set out in the final report were broken down into 5 areas:-

•Cost Analysis
•Audit Coverage
•Staffing
•Time series
•Quartiles


It was explained that Bury were performing at or above average in the majority of the findings.

Barrie also presented the Internal Audit progress chart which set out the planned performance compared to the actual performance and showed that the section were performing better than had been planned for in most areas.

Members of the Committee were given the opportunity to ask questions on the information provided and the following comments were raised:-

• The fact that the staff within the Internal Audit Section were not undergoing as much training as was the average and why .

Barrie explained that the staff within the Audit Section were all very experienced and qualified to a high level. Staff did undergo training as and when required and it was hoped that training would increase over the next twelve months.
AU.685The Head of Strategic Finance presented a report updating Members on the effectiveness of the Authority’s internal control and risk management systems. The report detailed the continuous monitoring that was carried out and highlighted any relevant issues.

It was explained that the arrangements to revise the Risk Registers at both Departmental and Corporate levels were firmly in place with reviews being undertaken each quarter for the previous two years.

Work was continuing in developing the Council’s approach to risk management in areas such as risk registers in respect of partnership working.

It was also explained that the current approach would be reviewed in 2009 with the aim of integrating risk management further into the day to day management and decision making processes of the Council.

The work of Internal Audit was explained and it was reported that the section produced reports which ranked recommendations according to urgency with the highest category being red. During the current Audit year, 3 reports gave rise to recommendations in this category within a total of 304 recommendations being made during the course of the year to date.

Internal Audit had undertaken a widespread review of Ethical Governance and had produced an in-house training package which included a pod-cast that could be viewed via the e-learning link on the intranet.

The Council had received its 2008 Use of Resource Auditor Judgement and it had been assessed as an overall score of 3.

The report also highlighted issues relating to budget monitoring, the implementation of the local pay agreement and systems for declaring interests and offers of gifts and hospitality.

No significant control weaknesses had been identified in the year to date.
AU.686Steve Kenyon, Head of Strategic Finance presented a report updating Members on the system to declare, monitor and report gifts and hospitality offered to/ received by staff and Members during the period July to December 2008.

The report set out the number of declarations made in each department and the average value of the gifts.
AU.687Rashpal Khangura, representing KPMG presented a report updating Members on the ongoing work of KPMG.