Meeting documents

Audit Committee
Tuesday, 4th December, 2012 7.00 pm

Date:
Tuesday, 4th December, 2012
Time:
7.00pm
Place:
Meeting Rooms A & B, Bury Town Hall
 

Attendance Details

Present:
Councillor P Bury (in the Chair);
Councillors D Cassidy, E FitzGerald, M Hankey, P Heneghan, S Nuttall, K Rothwell and B Vincent.

Apologies for absence:
Councillor A Audin
Buttons
Item Description Decision
Open
AU.553 NOMINATION OF CHAIR
Delegated decision:

That Councillor P Bury be nominated as Chair in the absence of Councillor A Audin.

AU.554 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
 
AU.555 Minutes of the Meeting held on Thursday, 23rd August, 2012 7.00pm
Delegated decision:

That the Minutes of the meeting of the Audit Committee held on
23 August 2012 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.
AU.556 PUBLIC QUESTION TIME
 
AU.557 TRAINING - AUDIT REPORTS
Delegated decision:

That a report setting out the statistics in relation to the Customer Contact Centre would be brought to a future meeting of the Audit Committee.
AU.558 FINANCIAL MONITORING REPORT - APRIL 2012 TO SEPTEMBER 2012
Delegated decision:

That the contents of the report be noted.
AU.559 QUARTERLY GOVERNANCE STATEMENT
Delegated decision:

That the contents of the report be noted.

AU.560 ANNUAL AUDIT LETTER
 
AU.561 THANKS AND CONGRATULATIONS
Delegated decision:

That Heather be thanked for her work in relation to the Audit Committee.

AU.562 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.563 INTERNAL AUDIT PROGRESS REPORT
  • (Attachment: 5)Report from the Head of Internal Audit
  • |
    (Attachment: 6)Appendix A
  • |
    (Attachment: 7)Appendix B
  • |
    (Attachment: 8)Appendix C
  • |
    (Attachment: 9)Appendix D
 
AU.564 INTERNAL AUDIT FEEDBACK
  • (Attachment: 10)Report from the Head of Internal Audit
 
The meeting started at 7.00 pm and ended at 8.45 pm

Preamble

Preamble
ItemPreamble
AU.554Councillor Rothwell declared a personal interest in any item that referred to Council finances as he was a tenant of Six Town Housing and a Governor at a Bury school.


Councillor Vincent declared a personal interest as he was a Governor at Philips High School.

Councillor Hankey declared a personal interest as he was a Governor at Old Hall Primary School.
AU.556
There were no members of the public present to ask questions under this item.
AU.557Barrie Strothers gave a presentation explaining the process of producing an audit report.

The presentation set out the life of an audit report including the reason for carrying out the audit, how work was allocated and planned, the requirements needed for a report to be of an acceptable standard and follow up after the report has been produced.

Members of the Committee were given the opportunity to ask questions and make comments and the following points were raised:

• Councillor FitzGerald referred to customers contacting the Council and asked whether customer flow had been monitored and whether this information was available as it would be an important indicator of the effectiveness of the Council.

Steve Kenyon explained that the Customer Contact Centre produced a range of statistics relating to customer contact and this could be shared with the Committee at a future meeting.

• Councillor Rothwell asked whether the Revenues and Benefits contact centre information could also be included.

Steve Kenyon explained that the Customer Contact Centre and Revenues and Benefits were co-located at Whittaker Street so this information would be included.

• Councillor Nuttall asked for clarification on the role and remit of the Audit Committee as this was her first meeting of the Committee since she had been elected.

Barrie Strothers gave a brief overview of the work of the Committee and stated that he would send the relevant information to Councillor Nuttall. One to one training was also available if required.
AU.558
The Assistant Director of Resources (Finance and Efficiency), Steve Kenyon presented a report updating Members of the Committee on the Authority’s financial 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 overspending of £1.266m for the year based on spending and income information as at 30 September 2012.

Members were given the opportunity to ask questions or make comment on the contents of the report and the following points were raised:

• Councillor Hankey explained that he had recently received a briefing relating to Bury Market the financial situation regarding this. Councillor Hankey stated that this seemed like good news as the markets were performing well.

• Councillor Cassidy asked whether every department had a purchasing card.

Steve explained that the purchasing cards were very limited and had an excellent control system attached to allow for indepth scrutiny of all purchases carried out.

• Councillor Hankey referred to the overspend being partly related to a drop in demand for certain services such as planning and leisure and asked whether there would be a point at which these services were reviewed for viability.

Steve explained that that all issues would be considered on a timely basis and future plans would be reviewed.

AU.559The 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 26 June 2012.

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:-

• Councillor FitzGerald referred to the downscaling of Risk 7 - regarding the impact of the Localism Act and asked whether this was a premature move as the documents relating to this subject had not been received by the Cabinet as yet. Public awareness if the contents of the Act could be raised which would raise the risks associated.

Steve Kenyon stated that he would ensure that these comments were noted.

• Councillor Heneghan referred to Risk 10 on the register which related to asylum seekers across Greater Manchester and asked how the Council would be able to ensure that all of the authorities' across the region were sharing responsibility for the asylum seekers when it would be SERCO that would be working to rehome them and not the council's directly.

Steve and Barrie stated that they would provide more information on this issue to Councillor Heneghan.

AU.560Heather Garrett from KPMG presented the Committee with the Annual Audit Letter 2011/2012. The letter summarised the key findings from the 2011/2012 audit of the Council and incorporated their findings in relation to the Financial Statements of the authority and the value for money conclusion.

KPMG issued an unqualified opinion on the Authority’s financial statements on 31 August 2012 which confirmed that they were satisfied that the financial statements gave a true and fair view of the financial position of the Authority and of its expenditure and income for the year.

Appended to the report was a breakdown of the fees for the 2011/2012 audit.
AU.561It was reported that Heather had been successful in securing a promotion within KPMG and the Committee offered its congratulations.

Heather explained that she would still be working with Bury Council in relation to the Extermal Audit work but she would no longer be attending the Audit Committee meetings.