Meeting documents

Audit Committee
Tuesday, 14th February, 2012 7.00 pm

Date:
Tuesday, 14th February, 2012
Time:
7.00 pm
Place:
Meeting Room A & B, Town Hall, Bury
 

Attendance Details

Present:
Councillor P Bury (in the Chair);
Councillors K Audin, J Columbine, I Gartside D O’Hanlon K Rothwell and B Vincent

Co-opted:
Mr D Gremson, Independent Member
Heather Garrett, (KPMG)
Gemma Douse (KPMG)

There were no members of the public in attendance at the meeting
Apologies for absence:
Councillor A Audin
Buttons
Item Description Decision
Open
AU.609 NOMINATION OF CHAIR
Delegated decision:

That Councillor Peter Bury be nominated as Chair for the Meeting.

AU.610 COUNCILLOR JOHN BYRNE
 
AU.611 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
 
AU.612 PUBLIC QUESTION TIME
 
AU.613 Minutes of the Meeting held on Tuesday, 6th December, 2011 7.00 pm
Delegated decision:

That the Minutes of the meeting of the Audit Committee held on 6 December 2011 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.
AU.614 TRAINING
It was agreed:

That Andrew be thanked for his informative training session.
AU.615 MONTH 9 FINANCIAL AND PERFORMANCE MONITORING REPORT
Delegated decision:

That the contents of the report be noted.
AU.616 QUARTER 3 GOVERNANCE STATEMENT 2011/2012 - THIS REPORT IS ATTACHED FOR INFORMATION
Delegated decision:

That the contents of the report be noted.
AU.617 QUARTER 3 GIFTS AND HOSPITALITY / DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST 2011/2012 - THIS REPORT IS ATTACHED FOR INFORMATION
Delegated decision:

That the contents of the report be noted.
AU.618 CERTIFICATION OF GRANTS AND RETURNS 2010/2011
Delegated decision:

That the contents of the report be noted.
AU.619 EXTERNAL AUDIT PLAN 2011/2012
Delegated decision:

That the contents of the report be noted.
AU.620 EXTERNAL AUDIT PROGRESS REPORT - THIS REPORT IS ATTACHED FOR INFORMATION
Delegated decision:

That the contents of the report be noted
AU.621 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.622 INTERNAL AUDIT PROGRESS REPORT 2011/2012 - THIS REPORT IS ATTACHED FOR INFORMATION
  • (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.623 INTERNAL AUDIT FEEDBACK 2011/2012 - THIS REPORT IS ATTACHED FOR INFORMATION
  • (Attachment: 14)A report from the Head of Internal Audit
 
AU.624 INTERNAL AUDIT ANNUAL PLAN 2012/2013
Members are asked to approve the attached Plan
  • (Attachment: 15)A report from the Head of Internal Audit
  • |
    (Attachment: 16)Appendix A
  • |
    (Attachment: 17)Appendix B
 
The meeting started at 7.00 pm and ended at 8.45 pm

Preamble

Preamble
ItemPreamble
AU.610Councillor Bury reported on the recent death of Councillor John Byrne.

All present at the meeting observed a minutes silence as a tribute to Councillor Byrne.
AU.611Councillor Rothwell declared a personal interest in any item that referred to Council finances and schools finances as he was a tenant of Six Town Housing and a Governor at a Bury school.

Council O’Hanlon reported that he was a Governor at St Monica’s R.C. High School and Butterstile Primary School which had recently had Audits undertaken.
AU.612There were no members of the public present to ask questions under this item.
AU.613Councillor O’Hanlon asked that it be noted that questions had been asked in relation to AU.432 Financial and Performance Monitoring Report but had not been included within the Minutes.
AU.614Andrew Baldwin, Head of Financial Management gave a training session for Members of the Committee specifically relating the Council’s Statement of Accounts.

Andrew explained the contents of the accounts and the way in which they were presented in line with statutory guidelines and regulations.

Members were given the opportunity to ask questions and make comments throughout the course of the training session.

The group asked whether it would be possible for the final version of the accounts to be colour coded in the way that the training examples had been.
AU.615The Assistant Director of Resources (Finance and Efficiency), Steve Kenyon presented a report updating Members of the Committee on the Authority’s financial and performance position in line with the Committee’s Statement of Purpose to ‘provide independent scrutiny of the authority’s financial and non-financial performance to the extent that it affects the authority’s exposure to risk and weakens the control environment’.

The report indicated that the authority was projecting an underspending of £0.103m for the year based on spending and income information as at 31 December 2011.

The report also gave a summary of performance during quarter 3 of the 2011/2012 financial year. The table set out at 4.4 of the report highlighted areas of concern which were classed as “double-red” (performing worse than at the end of 2010/2011 and not forecast to meet 2011/2012 targets at the end of nine months performance monitoring period).

Members were given the opportunity to ask questions or make comment on the contents of the report.

Councillor O’Hanlon referred to 3.3 of the report relating to variances and asked for clarification on this.

Steve Kenyon explained that that the figure that Councillor O’Hanlon was referring to related to underachieving of lettings on the trading estates that were owned by the Council. Steve also explained that measures were being put in place to make the units more attractive to renters.

Councillor O’Hanlon referred to 4.4 of the report and asked when a review of the new technology that had been introduced to Waste Management would be carried out. Specifically the accuracy of the software installed.

It was reported that this request would be taken forward.
AU.616The Head of Internal Audit presented a report providing Members with a quarterly update on the Annual Governance Statement which had been approved by the Audit Committee at its meeting on 21 June 2011.

The report gave an update on the continuous monitoring that was carried out and highlighted any relevant issues with regards to Risk Management, Business Continuity, Budget Monitoring, the work of Internal Audit, the work of the Governance Panel, Gifts and Hospitality, Anti Fraud and Corruption Strategy and the Medium Term Financial Strategy and an update on sickness absence across the authority which the Audit Committee had requested be included within the Statement.

Members were given the opportunity to ask questions and make comment and the following points were raised:-

• Mr Gremson asked that sickness absence figures continue to be monitored by the Audit Committee in the future.

• Councillor O’Hanlon explained that he had sent his apologies to the Risk Management Group but would like to attend a future meeting of this group.
AU.617Steve Kenyon presented a report providing Members with an update of the system to declare, monitor and report gifts and hospitality offered to or received by staff and Members. The report presented a summary of declarations made for the period October 2011 to December 2011.

Councillor Vincent referred to the table set out at 2.6 of the report and in particular the £199 declared by a Member of the Council.

Councillor Vincent asked what this figure related to.

It was explained that the £199 referred to in the report was the value of a gift given to the Mayor by a local business. It was also explained that the gift had been part of an auction that had raised money for the Mayor’s charity.
AU.618KPMG submitted a report summarising the work that had been carried out in on the Council’s 2010/2011 grant claims and returns.
AU.619KPMG presented the Committee with the plan of work in relation to Use of Resources and Financial Statements for the 2011/2012 financial year.
AU.620Heather Garrett, representing KPMG presented the Committee with the Progress Statement for the External Audit Programme 2011/2012.