Consideration was given to the report of the
Head of Internal Audit which provided an Annual Report and Opinion
for 2021/2022, drawing upon the outcomes of Internal Audit work
performed over the course of the year, and concluded on the
Effectiveness of Internal Audit.
In line with the Public Sector Internal Audit
Standards, which came into force from 1 April 2013, an annual
opinion should be generated which concluded on the overall adequacy
and effectiveness of the organisation’s framework of
governance, risk, management and control:
- A summary of the work which
supported the opinion should be submitted;
- Reliance placed on other assurance
providers should be recognised;
- Any qualifications to that opinion,
together with the reason for qualification must be provided;
- There should be disclosure of any
impairments or restriction to the scope of the opinion;
- There should be a comparison of
actual audit work undertaken with planned work;
- The performance of internal audit
against its performance measures and targets should be summarised;
and
- Any other issues considered relevant
to the Annual Governance Statement should be recorded.
The report also contained conclusions on the
Review of the Effectiveness of Internal Audit, which included:
- The degree of conformance with the
PSIAS and the result of any quality assurance and improvement
programme;
- The outcomes of the performance
indicators; and
- The degree of compliance with
CIPFA’s Statement on the Role of the Head of Internal
Audit.
The Head of Internal Audit raised the
following main points:
- The opinion itself was detailed at
section 2.2 of the report:
- the overall opinion in relation to
the framework of governance, risk management and control at South
Holland District Council was Reasonable – this conclusion was
reached by considering a number of points which were detailed
within the report;
- Section 3.2 of the report
highlighted the summary of the internal audit work. SHDC’s
positive audit culture was welcomed by the auditors;
- Section 3.4 of the report outlined
recommendations for inclusion within SHDC’s Annual Governance
Statement until they had been concluded; and
- Section 5 detailed the effectiveness
of internal audit:
- the majority of the planned work had
been completed;
- performance targets had been
challenging for 2021/22 due to the continuing impact of Covid-19
and resulting pressures placed on teams. A recent resurgence of
Covid-19 had impacted planned audits;
- the audit team had strengthened
‘timeliness’ processes and new KPI thresholds had been
introduced; and
- two pieces of work were due to
complete before the handover to the new internal auditor later in
the year.
Members considered the report and the
following issues were raised:
- Members referred to the
effectiveness of the internal audit and noted that performance had
not met agreed targets, nonetheless:
- the positive audit culture had been
constructive;
- only three recommendations remained
outstanding; and
- the narratives on Appendix 4 were
considered useful and needed to remain a feature within the report
going forward.
AGREED:
a)
That the contents of the Annual Report
and Opinion of the Head of Internal Audit be received and
approved;
b)
That it be noted that a Reasonable audit
opinion had been given in relation to governance, risk management
and control for the year ended 31 March 2022;
c)
That it be noted that the opinions
expressed together with significant matters arising from internal
audit work and contained within the report should be given due
consideration, when developing and reviewing the Council’s
Annual Governance Statement for 2021/22; and
d)
That the conclusions of the Review of the
Effectiveness of Internal Audit be noted.