Agenda item

Report from the S.151 Officer attached

Appendices attached

The Senior Auditor presented a report from the Section 151 Officer detailing the work undertaken by Internal Audit between 1 January and 31 March 2026. The report outlined progress made in completing the 2024/25 Internal Audit Plan and commencing the 2025/26 Audit Plan. It enables Members to monitor the performance of the Internal Audit service, raise any matters for further consideration, and provides an opportunity to request additional information or propose areas for further or follow?up audit work.

The conclusions drawn from the report are:

·         Work on the 2025/26 plan is progressing, with 17 reviews ongoing and 3 reports at draft stage. All audits from the 2025/26 plan have commenced.

·         3 final audit reports have been issued during the quarter 4 period.

·         7 first follow up exercises and 6 second follow up exercises have been completed between the period 1 January to 31 March 2026.

Those present were given the opportunity to ask questions and the following points were raised:

·         Councillor Bernstein referred to the KPIs that were set out in the report and the fact that 72% had been met and asked what this said.

It was explained that this was the first year that the KPIs had been recorded. There was room for improvement, but the implementation of recommendations was out of the control of Internal Audit.

·         Councillor Moss referred to the 3 audit reports that had been issued during the last quarter and the fact that they had all been limited assurance and asked if there was any reason for this.

It was stated that there was no reason.

·         Councillor Moss referred to the guidance which will be issued to schools and asked if the auditors were seeing commonality on school audit reports?

It was confirmed that there were common areas and these had been picked up in the guidance that was being issued by the schools finance team.

·         Councillor Moss asked what could be done to ensure that more audits were completed.

It was explained that the team try to complete as many audits as possible throughout the year and were on track to complete another 9. It was stated that there would always be incomplete audits to carry over at the end of each year. The number of days spent on audits had reduced year on year

·         Councillor Berry asked whether the Audit Committee would receive reports of the Governance and Assurance Board and what would happen if targets weren’t achieved.

Any recommendations that were outstanding were monitored monthly at the Governance and Assurance Board that was attended by the Directors, Assistant Directors and heads of service. The Internal Audit team follow up on outstanding recommendations.

·         Mr Webster referred to the ICT reviews and asked if any had been undertaken.

It was reported that Salford Council provide 20 days of support to Bury in relation to ICT audits, but no reviews had been done for the 25/26 financial year as work undertake during 24.25 had still been being finalised. The work for 26/27 had been agreed.

·         Councillor Green asked when the vacant Head of FAIR post would be recruited to.

The S.151 Officer explained that the job was currently going through moderation and would be recruited to imminently.

It was agreed:

That the Audit Committee note the report and the work undertaken by the Auditors