Agenda item

To provide members with the position on the progress made by management in implementing agreed Internal Audit recommendations as at March 2023 (report of the Head of Internal Audit for South Holland District Council enclosed).

Consideration was given to the report of the Head of Internal Audit which provided members with the position on the progress made by management in implementing agreed Internal Audit recommendations as at March 2023.

The report had been issued to assist the Authority in the discharging of its responsibilities in relation to the internal audit activity and outlined the follow up process and status of recommendations.

Appendix 1 presented a summary position on all Internal Audit recommendations; and Appendix 2 detailed the outstanding Internal Audit recommendations.

The Head of Internal Audit introduced the report by stating that a pro-active approach to the clearing of outstanding Internal Audit recommendations had been taken. The Assistant Director – Wellbeing and Community Leadership and the Head of Procurements and Contracts were in attendance for this item only, so that updates in respect of their areas of responsibility could be presented to the Committee.

The Head of Internal Audit stated that the following developments appertaining to Appendix 2 had been made since the report was released:

SH2108 Asset Management:

• Recommendation 3 (important): ‘A planned maintenance programme be developed and complied with, for the Council’s operational assets and this be subject to regular review’.
  • Comments had been received that commencement of the work was imminent. The recommendation would be followed up and an update presented for consideration at the next Governance and Audit Committee meeting

• Recommendation ‘The Asset Management Strategy (AMS), Corporate Land and the Property Policy, and the Land Sales Procedure be updated and merged as one document and be made available to relevant staff members’: (Important):
  • This recommendation had been completed.

PSPS SH2104 Accounts Receivable:

• Recommendation 5 (Needs attention): ‘A diminimus level should be included in the Accounts Receivable Protocol..’
  • This recommendation had been completed.

SH2202 Human Resources:

• Recommendation 1 (Important): ‘To complete a reconciliation between establishment costs and assigned budgets..’
  • This recommendation had been completed.

• Recommendation 3 (Important): ‘To undertake PDRs with evidence of outcomes retained accordingly’
  • The current due date had been postponed to June 2023 however the focus was for completion by 30 April 2023 with an element for completion by September 2023. Was this approach acceptable to the Committee?
    • The Internal Auditor and Committee were satisfied with the proposed approach to be taken.

• Recommendation 5 (Needs attention): ‘To report sickness absence in greater detail..’
  • This recommendation had been completed.

SH2210 Housing Needs, Allocations, Homelessness and Housing Register:

• The Assistant Director – Wellbeing and Community Leadership stated that the newly appointed Homelessness Reduction Manager had taken a pro-active approach in the completion of all outstanding Internal Audit recommendations and a presentation update had been circulated to the Committee in February 2023. All actions were considered completed.
  • The Committee agreed with the approach taken and that the recommendations be marked as completed.

 SH2211 Private Sector Housing DFGs:

• The Assistant Director – Wellbeing and Community Leadership stated that the recommendations had directed a specific IT route however outcomes sought by the recommendations had been achieved through other means. All actions were considered to be completed with the exception of recommendation 7 which related to Empty Homes. In this respect, the Chairman had been made aware that a new Private Sector Housing Strategy was in development and had suggested an update come forward to the Committee in a short period of time.
  • The Committee agreed with the approach taken.
• The Assistant Director – Wellbeing and Community confirmed that a system was in place for those in the private rented sector to receive advice.

SH2208 Licencing:

• Recommendation 1 (Needs attention): ‘Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Procedures..’

SH2301 Procurement:

The Head of Procurements and Contracts introduced an update to the two outstanding Procurement recommendations with the caveat that the responsibility for their fulfilment had only recently transferred from Breckland District Council’s Procurement service to South Holland District Council.

• Recommendation 4 (Needs attention): ‘To publish, on the Council’s Website, updated versions of the Contracts Register, in accordance with the Local Government Transparency Code 2015’.
  • This recommendation would be actioned after the launch of the new Procurement service in April 2023;
  • A proposal was brought to the Committee that a revised completion date of 1 May 2023 be agreed, and that the recommendation be marked as closed thereafter.
    • The Committee agreed with the proposed approach.

• Recommendation 6 (Needs attention): ‘Attach the Exemptions Register to the quarterly procurement report to Senior Leadership Team for information, oversight and scrutiny’
  • Quarterly reports would come forward to the Senior Leadership Team via the Assistant Director – Finance as agreed during the alignment of the Contract Procedure Rules. The reporting would be effective from the first quarter of the new financial year, and it was proposed that the recommendation be marked as closed thereafter. 
    • The Committee agreed with the proposed approach.

The Head of Procurements and Contracts requested the following amendments to recommendations which were due for completion by 1 April 2023:

• Recommendation 3 ‘Complete a full review of the commissioning intentions’:

• Recommendation 7 ‘Current suite of KPIs to be reviewed to determine whether they provided management with the desired level of information’
  • The Head of Procurements and Contracts suggested that the recommendation would be satisfied through the new Service Level Agreement (SLA) between PSPS and the S&ELCP authorities (necessitated by PSPS taking on the fulfilment of the Procurement of Contracts function), as an overarching approach to KPIs and performance monitoring would be taken. A draft SLA had been created and submitted to the Assistant Director – Finance for approval by the end of March 2023. Upon approval of the SLA, was the Committee content that the recommendation could be marked as completed?
    • The Committee agreed that the Head of Internal Audit and the Head of Procurements and Contracts confirm the specific governance route of the SLA outside of the meeting, and for delegation of the final decision to be given to the Head of Internal Audit.

AGREED:

That the information detailed within the report be noted by the Committee.