Agenda item

8.1

The Committee received a report of the Senior Finance Manager, Internal Audit.

8.2

The Senior Finance Manager, Internal Audit (Linda Hunter) explained that report highlighted the work that had been undertaken by Internal Audit during the year and it also supported the Council’s Annual Governance Statement (AGS).

8.3

The Senior Finance Manager, Internal Audit explained that from the work undertaken by Internal Audit during the year, she was satisfied

that the risk management, governance and internal control framework were adequate to allow the Council to conduct its business appropriately. She gave an overall reasonable (positive) assurance opinion for the year.

8.4

Internal Audit had an agreed budget for 2022/23 as outlined in the table in the report, which also summarised the end of year budget position. The Senior Finance Manager, Internal Audit reported that there was an underspend last year due to staffing and that there was still one vacancy open.

8.5

The Senior Finance Manager, Internal Audit referred to the audit plan delivery in the report. She explained that a total of 91 assurance reviews were completed out of a revised 22/23 plan of 101. The target for the year was to complete 91 reviews, which was the agreed

90% target of the planned 101 reviews. Five reviews were deferred or deleted due to issues that only became apparent towards the end of the year after the mid-year plan had been completed.

8.6

The Senior Finance Manager, Internal Audit stated there were: -

• No assurance - 1 report.
• Limited assurance - 5 reports.
• Moderate assurance - 13 reports.

·       Substantial assurance - 8 reports.

The no assurance report was where the Council had a significant weakness identified.  The severity of risk then moved down to substantial assurance reports which were of minor risk to the Council.

8.7

The Senior Finance Manager, Internal Audit confirmed that all the five performance targets outlined in the report had been achieved.

8.8

Members of the Committee asked questions and following responses were provided: -  

8.9

The Senior Finance Manager, Internal Audit explained that the 1 no assurance report related to Fargate Containers. She mentioned that the progress of that report will be part of the recommendation tracker report, which will be presented to the Audit & Standards Committee in January 2024. Members of the Audit and Standards Committee would receive the report a week after this meeting.

8.10

The Senior Finance Manager, Internal Audit explained that due to some of the fraud cases found within the Council, it had led to either a dismissal or resignations of Council employees. Where areas of weakness relating to fraud had been found, processes had been put in place to mitigate further occurrences.

8.11

The Senior Finance Manager, Internal Audit stated that Sheffield City Council were part of a core cities group in which they had meetings to benchmark and carry out comparative work.

8.12

The Senior Finance Manager, Internal Audit confirmed the deadline date for the completion of all audit recommendations for the Total Mobile application was March 2024. Around that time Internal Audit will be following up to see where they are with their recommendations which can then be reported to the Audit & Standards Committee at a future meeting.

8.13

The Senior Finance Manager, Internal Audit explained that core city peer reviews (an external assessment required from PSIAS) worked on a rotation basis. The Internal Audit Service would also look to use an independent organisation next time, to carry out their peer review.

8.14

RESOLVED:  Note the content of the report and the opinion of the Senior Finance Manager.