Agenda item

Jaclyn Gibson, Chief Finance Officer:

a.    presented the draft Internal Audit Plan 2024/25 for consideration and approval, as detailed at Appendix A of the report

b.    advised that the plan had been developed using a combination of the Council’s Combined Assurance Model, an assessment of risk,  consultation with senior management, reference to risk registers, horizon scanning and reference to the cyclical and ICT schedules

c.     reported that the Internal Audit Plan should focus on the key risks facing the Council, be adequate to support the Head of Audit’s opinion taking into account key risks facing the Council when developing the plan, achieving a balance between setting out the planned work for the year and retaining flexibility to changing risks and priorities during the year, via a regular review of any changing activity and risks

d.    gave an overview of the current staffing level at paragraph 4.1 of the report and advised that the impact on the current resource was being managed through the engagement of a casual external audit contractor

e.    advised that the annual planned days were 310, which represented a “good” level of audit resource for an authority of this size and allowed the Head of Internal Audit sufficient resources to comply with standards and provide an appropriate audit opinion. This included work across key financial systems, other governance and due diligence areas as well as critical systems, ICT and Counter Fraud

f.      invited members’ questions and comments;

Question: With reference to the Critical Activities, what did the Market Operation relate to?

Response: It related to the new Central Market

Question: In 2023/24 the number of days had been reduced by 42 days. Would 310 days be a sufficient number of days for 2024/25?

Response: There had been staffing issues within the team for 2023/24. The Head of Audit had provided assurance that enough work across all areas would be covered, with an Audit Plan of 310 days, for her to provide her annual audit opinion.

Question: Were the changes to the Audit Plan discussed with the Chair of Audit Committee?

Response: The Internal Audit Progress Report was regularly presented to Audit Committee which clearly stated any changes to the Audit Plan.

Question: Was 310 days realistic for 2024/25 given that there were still vacancies within the team?

Response: Yes, there was now more resources within the team. The part-time Auditor post had been made full time, although some time had been deducted to allow for their training. There was also support provided by specialist IT audit contractors. The remaining audit days would be secured through an external audit contractor.

Question: The IT Strategy and Infrastructure and Cloud Computing were identified as areas of importance in last years plan. Why had the IT Strategy and Infrastructure been progressed into the 2024/25 Audit Plan but Cloud Computing was still on the reserve list?

Response: When producing the Draft Audit Plan, consideration had been given to due diligence and governance. It was not possible to include every auditable area that was identified as important.

Question: Why had the number of days per Audit not been included in the report?

Response: The information was unavailable at the time of writing the report and it would be provided to members following the meeting.

RESOLVED that the Internal Audit Plan 2024-25 be approved.