Agenda item

To inform Members of the Internal Audit activity progress in relation to the approved Internal Audit Plan 2021/22.

The Head of Audit Risk Assurance introduced the report and explained that since the last Committee meeting in November there had been one audit activity completed which was an audit on voids. He further explained the completed audit activity to the Committee which included:

• Figures 3 and 4 in the report show the finely balance judgement which took place throughout.
• There had been a great impact on void turnaround times due to Covid. It was recognised that some staff of the contractors were furloughed.
• The period of time looked at was quite a challenging one for Officers.
• There were 20 recommendations made, 3 of which were classed as high priority.

The Head of Audit Risk Assurance also informed the Committee that there was a summary on counter fraud activities included within the report which consisted of:

• 2 referrals were received and dealt with by Audit and Standards Committee.
• 1 item was carried over from the previous year which was still being assessed by the Counter Fraud Team and would be coming to the Committee once finalised.

In response to Councillor Hurst, the Head of Contract Management confirmed that 127 properties were subject to the audit.

Councillor Baker clarified that tenants removed from properties due to non-payment of rent or through their own actions would not contribute to the homelessness issue because there would be no obligation to house them if they had caused their own homelessness.

Councillor Pearcy raised concerns over the number of reports which indicated a missing or out of date procedure and questioned whether there was a way to identify this without completing a full audit. The Head of Audit Risk Assurance explained that some Councils had a policy register.

The Strategic Director of Resource confirmed that a policy register was currently being drafted by the Policy and Governance Team.

Councillor Pearson questioned whether the new way of working e.g hybrid and home working had caused the large number (67%) of audit reports to be limited when only 33% were classed as satisfactory. He further questioned that if that was a factor would the Council take it under consideration. The Principal Auditor confirmed that the outcomes of those audits were not driven fundamentally by home working.

Councillor Kay raised concerns with the Safeguarding report being deferred into the following year. The Principal Auditor confirmed that part of the mid-year revision involved adding a number of new, high risk priority audits to the current plan, as requested by Committee. In order to accommodate those reports it was decided to move the Safeguarding audit into the following internal audit plan. 

Councillor Kay expressed his dissatisfaction with the deferral of the Safeguarding audit.

Councillor Pearcy questioned whether they would solidify the internal audit plan by accepting the report today. The Strategic Director of Resources confirmed the audit plan was set in advance, however, should things arise throughout the year, the Committee would be entitled to ask to add or change things. He further explained they were very close to the end of the current year and to add or amend things at this time would have been difficult.

It was confirmed that the audit year coincided with the Civic year as opposed to the calendar year. The Strategic Director of Resources agreed to work with the Audit Team to make the Safeguarding report a high priority for the following audit plan.

Councillor Hurst debated the following topics:

• The enormous loss of income to the HRA due to the large number of voids which didn’t seem to be reported in the budget going to Council.
• The local authority peer groups against which the councils’ figures were measured were also experiencing the pandemic however they managed to cope.
• Interested to see if other peer group authorities had brought the housing maintenance contracts in house.
• This report needed to be largely in the Public Domain and Housing Committee needed sight of it.

Councillor Baker confirmed that the time frames for Audit review and the Peer authority review were slightly different therefore couldn’t be directly compared.

The Chair confirmed to the Committee that the voids report had already been to the Housing Committee on the 7^th December.

The Chair of the Housing Committee, Councillor Ross confirmed it had been discussed, they had set up a task and finish group who would be looking into voids and repairs and they regularly reported back to the Housing Committee.

The Strategic Director of Resources explained that the Accountancy Manager gave a budget report at the last Housing Committee which reported on the financial aspect of voids.

Councillor Pearcy proposed and Councillor Pearson seconded.

After being put to a vote, the Motion was carried unanimously.