Agenda item

To consider the report of the Audit, Risk and Assurance Manager.

The Committee considered the report of the Audit, Risk and Assurance Manager detailing audits completed as part of the agreed Internal Audit Plan 2015/16.

The Audit, Risk and Assurance Manager introduced the report and drew Members attention to paragraph 5 which included the results of a data matching exercise conducted by the National Fraud Initiative (NFI), that had identified potential cases of fraud. He advised the Committee that 31 reports had been identified in total for the Council. It was noted that 14 of these reports related to Housing Benefit and would be investigated by Civica. The remaining reports relating to non-benefit areas such as payroll and creditors had been investigated by the Internal Audit team who had found no evidence of fraud.

The Chair referred to Appendix 1 and requested further explanation of the implementation dates for the agreed audit recommendations.  She was advised that the date included had been agreed with the appropriate manager as a target date for the implementation of the recommendations. The Audit, Risk and Assurance Manager advised the Committee that he would check whether the recommendations had been implemented approximately three months after the agreed implementation date.

In response to a question from Councillor Gravells, the Audit, Risk and Assurance Manager advised the Committee that the duplicate claim payment highlighted in the Members Allowance audit related to a dependents care allowance claim that had been processed twice.

Councillor Hobbs referred to the audit of Choice Based Lettings (CBL) and expressed concern that system access had not been disabled for leavers.  He questioned whether the Council’s HR department had a procedure in place for disabling system access following the departure of a member of staff. 

The Audit, Risk and Assurance Manager advised the Committee that the Council had a system in place for disabling access to networked systems whereby a notification was sent to the system administrator. He also assured the Committee that once network access had been disabled, leavers had no access to the Council’s networked systems. It was noted that the CBL system was internet based and therefore a slightly different form of this control was required.  

Councillor McLellan enquired whether the new CBL system would also be internet based. He was advised that the new system would be internet based and would be accessed by staff from the all six local authorities in Gloucestershire.

In response to a question from Councillor Gravells, the Audit, Risk and Assurance Manager advised the Committee that an audit of CBL had been completed several years ago but could not confirm whether or not its scope had included user access. 

Following a request from Councillor Gravells it was agreed that the previous CBL audit report would be circulated to Members by the Audit, Risk and Assurance Manager.

Members of the Committee expressed concerns at the outcome of the CBL audit. Members requested a written report on the issues discussed and further information on CBL along with the attendance of the Homelessness and Housing Advice Service Manager at the next Committee meeting.

RESOLVED:-

(1)  That Members endorse the audit work undertaken to date, and the assurance given on the adequacy of internal controls operating in the systems audited.

(2)  That a report on the outcomes of the CBL audit be added to the work programme for presentation at the next Committee meeting.