Issue - meetings

To examine the progress made between 11 November 2020 and 5 January 2021 in relation to the completion of the revised Annual Internal Audit Plan for 2020/21 (report of the Head of Internal Audit enclosed).

Consideration was given to the report of the Head of Internal Audit for South Holland District Council which examined the progress made between 11 November 2020 and 5 January 2021 in relation to the completion of the revised Annual Internal Audit Plan for 2020/21.

The Internal Audit Manager addressed members concerns in relation to Performance Measures. There had been difficulties with the contractor in finalising and moving some of the work forward, for various reasons, but the Committee were given assurance that this would improve.

The Internal Audit Manager informed the Committee that she would send over the final version of the Income report after the meeting.

The Internal Audit Manager informed the Committee that there were no executive summaries to be brought forward in terms of progress, however one report had been finalised since the agenda had been published and an update on the findings was provided.

The Governance and Audit Committee were informed that 5 important recommendations were raised.  Of the 5 recommendations, 3 related to physical security around cheques that were being sent to SHDC through the Customer Contact Centre.

·         Recommendations 1-3 related to tighter security around the opening of post, the documentation of cheques that were sent to the Council and the security of cheques as they come into the Finance department. There is a deadline of 1 February 2021 to resolve these issues.

·         Recommendation 4 was in relation to the Suspense Account. It had been noted that payments in the Suspense Account had not been investigated since April 2020.  The Internal Audit Manage informed the Committee that a more regular review was needed.

·         Recommendation 5 noted that once the payments within the Suspense Account  had been correctly allocated, there would be an independent check undertaken.

The Chairman asked, with regard to recommendations 1-3 in relation to tighter controls, whether everything was in place to meet the deadline date, or would this need to be extended?  The Internal Audit Manager informed the committee that the dates represented best practice.  The Auditee had indicated that these dates would be achievable. 

AGREED:

That the progress of the Internal Audit Plan of work for 2020/21 be noted.