Prior to the introduction of the internal audit report, the Chairman welcomed Gerry Palmer, Procurement Business Partnership Manager, Wealden District Council to the meeting, who provided Members with an update on the East Sussex Procurement Hub.

The internal audit had found that there was no up-to-date procurement strategy (an issue first raised at the last audit in August 2015) and no service level agreement (SLA) in place to formalise the current arrangements with the East Sussex Procurement Hub (ESPH).  A benchmark assessment against each of the key elements of the National Procurement Strategy for Local Government had been completed by the ESPH and council officers and the outcome had been received in February 2019.  The Procurement Strategy was being updated and consultation with officers and Members was due to take place over the following months in the form of workshops to be held in the Town Hall, with the revised strategy being presented to Cabinet in September 2019.  In addition, a revised SLA was anticipated to be ready for consultation in July 2019.

The Audit Manager led Members through the internal audit report to 31 March 2019.  The Council was required to ensure that it had reliable and effective internal control systems in place and the adequacy of these systems was tested by both Internal and External Audit.

The report included an annual report on the performance of the Internal Audit Service.  In the year up to 31 March 2019, Internal Audit had operated in accordance with the Public Sector Internal Audit Standards (hereafter referred to as ‘the Standards’). It was a requirement of the Standards that a report was made to the Audit and Standards Committee on audit matters and any emerging issues, not only in relation to audit but risk management and corporate governance.

The Internal Audit team had successfully completed the majority of the work for 2018/19; however, work on one audit (Software Licensing) was still ongoing at the year end and two other audits (Acquisition & Financial Management of ICT Facilities and Catering - Colonnade Café/Restaurant) did not proceed because the work was either covered elsewhere or no longer required.

The report gave details of the nine audits completed in the final quarter, a summary of all audit reports completed in 2018/19 and progress made on implementing audit recommendations.  Seven of these had provided good or substantial assurance on the overall governance arrangements. However, the other two audits (Benefits – Finance Extract and Creditors) only provided limited assurance due to problems with the introduction of a new computer system and the long term absence of a key member of staff.  Members requested that an update be provided to the Committee at the September meeting.

An overview of the findings arising from all nine audits was given in Appendix A to the report.

Appendix B to the report provided a summary of all audit reports completed in 2018/19, the level of compliance and assurance rating for each review, and the overall performance of the Internal Audit team against  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9