Agenda item

Simon Webb, Deputy Head of Audit for East Kent Audit Partnership, introduced the report and raised the following points:

·  This report was to be on the agenda at every Governance and Audit Committee meeting. He also explained to Members the scoring system used by EKAP with regards to grading the assurance levels;

·  Environmental Health Protection and Debtors scored an assurance level of Substantial with no recommendations;

·  Refuse Collection and Value Added Tax scored an assurance level of Reasonable;

·  Absence Management was broken down into three categories: Annual Leave, Sick Leave and Flexi Leave. Annual Leave scored an assurance level of Reasonable assurance. There was concern where Sick Leave and Flexi Leave scored an assurance level of Limited;

·  Licensing scored an assurance level of Reasonable, however there were some aspects of it that had no assurance due to needing a cost neutral exercise to be taken, with no evidence of this having been done;

·  Car Parking and Enforcement, scored No assurance level;

·  A follow-up audit was carried out 3 months after the report, to see how things have progressed;

·  With regards to the follow-up audit for this period based on the previous report submitted; Thanet Community Lotto was highlighted as an item that still had Limited or No assurance level. Museums was also brought up as Limited or No assurance level;

·  Dog Warden, Flying Tipping and Litter Enforcement scored Reasonable assurance levels, except for Litter Enforcement, which score a No assurance level, due to the Council not looking into Litter Enforcement currently;

·  Work-In Progress audits that were currently being worked on would be presented to the Committee at a later date. He highlighted Cyber-Security as it was discussed earlier in the evening. He advised that this report would come to Committee around November / December time and recommended the Committee to invite the Head of ICT to the committee meeting on that day;

·  He explained to Members the Progress Against the Agreed 2023-24 Audit Plan, as highlighted on the appendix of the report, which include areas of Service and ICT related audits

·  He also explained the Balanced Scorecard as laid out at the end of the report.

Discussion raised the following points:

·  Members asked about the Licensing audit and cost neutral exercise and whether or not it was exclusive to Licensing. Officers replied that it also applied to Land Charges and Building Control

·  On the subject of Parking, Members spoke about the element of people outside the district visiting the area and they wanted to know if that was taken into account with the audit. Officers replied that there was disappointment with receiving No assurance with regards to Parking. However this was due to mainly having a new team of officers. Officers assured Members that with changes in the management team going forward and establishing a management procedure should provide progress that would be reported at a later committee meeting. Members further requested a more detailed look at Parking at a future meeting;

·  Members asked about the number of CFOs employed that stood currently at 5 and what steps were being taken to reach the goal of 11. Officers replied that they were advertising the roles, but there was still difficulty getting people to apply. They went into further detail with Parking as raising prices would need to work within the existing legislation

·  Members touched upon the Absence audit to ask about the good practices identified and asked if it was true throughout the organisation. Officers replied that results of the audit were shared with officers to take on board any advice needed.

Councillor Garner proposed, Councillor Britcher seconded and Members AGREED that:

1.  The report be received by Members;

2.  That any changes to the agreed 2023-24 internal audit plan, resulting from changes in perceived risk, detailed at point 5.0 of Annex 1 of the committee report be approved.