Agenda and minutes

Councillors Raymond Graham and Richard Lewis declared Personal Interests In Agenda Item 5 – First Major Review – Effectiveness of the Audit Committee and its Terms of Reference as they were both Members of the Audit Committee. They both remained in the room and took part in discussions.

Agreed as an accurate record.

To confirm the items of business marked Part I will be considered in public and that the items marked Part II will be considered in private.  

It was agreed that all items of business were considered in public.

On 21 July 2011, the Committee commenced its review into the effectiveness of the Audit Committee and its terms of reference.

Members had been provided with documents which provided background information to the issues which would be covered in the review. These included, “Practical Guidance for Local Authorities” from CIPFA and the “Audit Committee Update No.5” which was issued by the CIPFA better governance forum.

The Chairman of the Audit Committee, John Morley and Jonathan Gooding from Deloitte, the Council’s External Auditors attended the meeting and provided Members with their views on the Audit Committee and its terms of reference.

Chairman of the Audit Committee – John Morley

·        Audit Committees in the public sector was a relatively new phenomena, although the NHS and Universities had had Audit Committees for considerably longer than local authorities

·        The membership of the Audit Committee should be larger and consideration should be given to the appointment of an additional Independent Member. This would balance up the Committee and would fit in with the proposals contained in the Department for Communities and Local Government consultation on the future of local public audit which included a proposal for an Independent Vice-Chairman

·        Reference was made to the recent problems with a meeting of the Audit Committee which would have been inquorate due to the absence of three Members. Increasing the membership, the number of substitute Members and making the quorum rules less restrictive would eradicate this problem

·        Reference was made to some sectors where Audit Committees had developed much further and Audit Committees looked at strategic risks. Hillingdon’s Audit Committee did not get involved in detailed reviews of Council departments

·        Members of Audit Committees should preferably have a financial background which would help Members in their role on the Audit Committee. This should be extended to substitutes.

·        Training was given to substitute Members as well as to newly appointed Members of the Audit Committee and this should be continued

·        There should be continuity of service with the membership of the Audit Committee to ensure Members were sufficiently skilled to carry out their duties, particularly as local authority accounts were complex

·        The Audit Committee received a summary of Internal Audit reports as full reports would contain too much detail to enable Members  to scrutinise effectively

·        Consideration could be given to providing more than a summary of Internal reports if requested by the Committee

·        The Audit Committee invited officers to their meetings if unsatisfactory levels of assurance were received for internal audits. This however, was not written into the Committee’s Terms of Reference although officers always attended if asked to do so. It was agreed that a recommendation of the review could be adding to the Audit Committee’s Terms of Reference, the invitation of officers to meetings to be questioned on unsatisfactory assurance levels received from Internal Audit    

·        Peer reviews were useful tools to assess the effectiveness of the Audit Committee and the Head of Audit at Southend on Sea Borough Council had carried one out on this authority’s Audit  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

Members noted that the Head of Procurement would now be attending the next meeting of this Committee (20 October 2011) when he would be providing the Committee with a presentation on procurement within the Council. The issues which were raised at the meeting on 21 July would be covered in the presentation.

Members also asked that the Council’s Facilities Manager be invited to the next meeting to provide Members with a report back on the action taken as a result of the recent power cut at the civic centre.

Members also asked that the Council’s Facilities Manager be asked for an update on the implementation of the recommendations of this Committee’s review on the Personal Safety of Members when meeting with members of the public.      

The work programme was noted.

Noted.