Agenda item

Christine Parker, Head of Internal Report for the East Kent Audit Partnership, introduced the report with the following points:

·  She explained to Members the importance for this report and how it applies to the Council, including the Risks, Assurances and Progress Reports provided in the report;

·  There were no concerns highlighted in the annual reports submitted by East Kent Services;

·  EKAP provided one follow up for items where audits had been carried out;

·  Four items in 2022/23 were presented as having Limited or No assurance level: Street Cleansing, Commercial Let Properties and Concessions; Equality and Diversity and Thanet community Lotto;

·  EKAP was working to align their opinions with that of Grant Thornton external audit opinion and value for money position;

·  The opinion provided on the report under Corporate Governance was based on individual pieces of work, although a subjective view;

·  The opinion provided to report Limited to No assurance was based on some recommendations not being implemented yet;

·  She drew attention to 10 areas where further follow up was needed and EKAP were looking to providing that follow up at a future Committee meeting;

·  On the subject of Risk Management, EKAP were satisfied that the arrangements for this were working effectively;

·  EKAP were also satisfied with the Management Response from TDC as it reaffirmed the commitment of the Council

Chris Blundell added some further comments:

·  Officers recognised the Council’s shortcomings when it came to Corporate Governance. However with the turnover of corporate management staff, it caused a strain in their ability to all address recommendations in the required timeframe. Going forward, there were only two positions to be filled on the Corporate Management Team and once those positions were filled, the Council would’ve been able to resource the recommendations from EKAP and implement them as soon as possible.

Discussion raised the following points:

·  Members asked for a further breakdown of the Thanet Community Lotto and Equality and Diversity areas in future Committee meetings. Officers replied that Equality and Diversity policies were important to the Council and would like to bring it back for a future Committee meeting, perhaps in November / December;

·  Members asked EKAP when it would be likely a review of current projects in TDC, including Berth 4-5 would be. Officers said that some of the recommendations had been quite broad as to accommodate methods and strategies already implemented by TDC as projects had been moving forward already. The follow up report will be provided to Members at a later Committee date;

·  Members spoke briefly about the audit report saying that EKAP’s work had been hampered due to lack of feedback from management and wanted to know if there were any steps being put in place to prevent that from happening in the future. Officers responded that capacity issues had been the cause of this, however meetings with EKAP were going to be more frequent going forward as well as inviting Ms Parker to CMT meetings in the future;

·  Members asked when the Business Continuity Management Audit would be brought back to the committee. Officers replied that it was initially not brought back due to Covid-19 issues, however if there were concerns, EKAP would look at bringing it back after December;

·  Members talked about East Kent Opportunities and what the follow up to this would be. Officers replied that it was a live order and would be coming to Members at the next Committee meeting

Councillor Towning proposed, Councillor Bright seconded and members AGREED:

1.  That Members note the Opinion of the Head of Audit Partnership;

2.  That Members receive the Annual Report detailing the work of the EKAP and its performance to underpin the 2022-23 opinion.