Issue - meetings

The committee is requested to consider and note the audit plan progress report.

Mr James presented the report, advising that there were no audit reports to present to the committee. Various audits were currently in draft form and would be reported to the committee in due course. Audit time had been spent on the key financial controls as there was a deadline of February 2018 in order that EY could place reliance on it as part of the final accounts audit.

At the last meeting members had expressed concern about the delay in the museum audit and the reduction in the number of audit days. Mr James confirmed that the museum audit had been delayed due to the need to await the outcome of the review of management delivery options and then subsequently the appointment of a new Museum Manager. With regard to the number of audit days, benchmarking had taken place with our “nearest neighbours’ family” and the current 2017-18 year had been set at 420 audit days as a median compared to other authorities. The 2018-19 audit plan was being developed and the number of audit days would be set dependent upon the audits required and having assessed the level of risk.

Assurance was requested that the milestones required during the year did not lead to staff feeling pressured to meet the target. Mr James confirmed that the number of working days within the team had been taken into account when setting the 2017-18 audit plan and that there was an element of contingency within the plan in-case non-programmed work needed to be undertaken. The staffing issue discussed at the last meeting had been resolved.

Mrs Hardwick referred members to page 9 of the minutes, second bullet point, where the committee had requested a more comprehensive explanation of delayed audits be provided in the audit plan progress report to allow the committee to fully understand the reasons and to be able to debate the issues and raise concerns. The explanation needed to confirm that authority had been given by Mr Ward that he had deemed the audit not able to be audited at that time. If the scope of the audit was not relevant to the current situation then it should be stated. Mrs Belenger undertook to liaise with Mr James as to how to present that information in order to allay the concerns of the committee.

RESOLVED

That progress against the Audit Plan be noted.