Agenda item

To consider the report of the Director of Resources (copy enclosed).

The Committeeconsidered thereport ofthe Director ofResourcesandassociated Internal Audit reports from BDO LLP, attached on the agenda at 6a to 6g, Progress Report; Follow-up of Recommendations; Workforce Management; Customer Relationship Management (CRM); Internal Audit Annual Report and Annual Statement of Assurance, Risk Maturity and Corporate Governance.

The Chairman introduced the reports and deferred to the Internal Audit Partner to present the detail.  He advised the Committee that he would present the seven reports in three tranches, dealing with 6a) and b) first and any questions arising, followed by 6c) d) and e) and finally 6f) and g).  It was noted that the Progress report covered four reports on the agenda, two from the 2020/21 programme of work and two from 2022/23 programme.  Internal Audit was finalising management responses on two further draft reports for 2020/21 covering Contract Management and Commercialisation,

The Follow-up report showed overall reasonable progress and the recommendations outstanding, namely Flood Risk Management and Safeguarding, would be covered in new audits on the 2022/23 programme of work.  It was noted that a lot of work had been undertaken in respect of affordable housing.

In response to issues raised Officers provided the following information:-

·        That the data on affordable housing had been collated, the next step was to report upwards to CLT via the balance scorecard.

·        That the Housing Strategy due date would slip slightly, many issues will be delivered.  A report was due to Strategy & Resources on 15 September 2022 when the timeline will be extended, The Strategy is still valid and ongoing.

·        That Management of Property will be linked to the Asset Management Working Group.  The work will not be completed by the current due date; however, the groundwork will have been laid.

·        That work on Flood Risk carried on in the background, there was no specific strategy for Maldon District as Essex County Council, the Lead Local Flood Authority determined the strategy working with the Environment Agency and supported by Maldon District Council.  It was agreed that the Flood Strategy Masterplan be circulated to the Committee following the meeting.

The Internal Audit Partner then addressed reports 6c), d) and e).  The Workforce Management Audit attained a level of assurance of substantial on both design and effectiveness.  It was noted that this was very positive and of significance for the Council.  Customer Relationship Management achieved moderate in both design and effectiveness.  This had been impacted by some issues with Firmstep, work was underway to address those which was a positive sign and management had a clear Action Plan in place.  The overall assurance in the Annual Report was moderate which was the second highest assurance allocated by BDO and given the challenging circumstances over the past year this was considered a good performance.

At this point, and in response to a query regarding potential problems with the Dash system, the Director of Resources said he would review and report back outside of the meeting.

The Internal Audit Manager then took the Committee through the final two reports . The Risk Maturity report noted that the Council scored above average against the key indicators when compared to other Councils, which demonstrated that risk management was being taken seriously.  Finally the Corporate  Governance review achieved substantial on design and moderate on design effectiveness.  A number of areas of strength were highlighted including adoption of the new Model Councillor Code of Conduct, Members’ Onboarding process, Member training etc.  An area of concern was the limited consideration given to the recommendations in the Planning Advisory Service report.  It was noted that this would be brought back to Council for review.

The Chairman then moved the recommendations which were duly seconded and the Committee agreed them by assent.

reSOLVED that the committee considered, commented, and approved the following:

(i)               Internal Audit Progress Report – July 2022 at  6a;

(ii)              Follow-up of Recommendations Report – July 2022 - 6b;

(iii)            Workforce Management – May 2022 – 6c;

(iv)            Customer Relationship Management (CRM) – March 2022 – 6d;

(v)             Internal Audit Annual Report and Annual Statement of Assurance – 21/22 – 6e;

(vi)            Risk Maturity – June 2022 – 6f;

(vii)         Corporate Governance – July 2022 – 6g.