Issue - meetings

The Committee considered a report on progress against the Internal Audit Plan 2012-13, revisions to the plan and a summary of the work undertaken during the first quarter of 2012-13.

The interim report contained a summary of the audit work in the first quarter, any issues judged particularly relevant to the preparation of the Annual Governance Statement, a comparison of the work undertaken with work planned, a summary of the performance of the internal audit function against its performance measures and targets, comments on compliance with standards and communication of the results of the internal audit quality assurance programme, and other developments.

There had been two major pieces of work during the first quarter:

§  Lyme Green Report, as reported previously to the Committee

§  the Annual Governance Statement, which was a separate report on the agenda

The Internal Audit establishment had been reduced significantly to reflect the savings required as part of the 2011/12 budget settlement. The current team was particularly lean and the Head of Internal Audit post was currently vacant.

A recent review completed by Audit Managers had concluded that, although there were areas for improvement (as detailed in the Annual Report to Committee in June 2012), the internal audit service was being delivered to the required standard.

The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) and the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) had recently launched a public consultation on the first unified set of public sector internal audit standards. It was currently proposed that the PSIAS (Public Sector Internal Audit Standards) would come into force from 1^st  April 2013. The Committee would receive further updates when more information became available.

Cheshire East Council was currently exploring opportunities around regional collaboration and Internal Audit had been involved in discussions in the last few months with its partners within the Cheshire and Warrington Sub-Region on how best to share information and pool limited resources.

RESOLVED

That

(1)  the issues identified in Appendix A to the report be noted; and

(2)  the approach identified to achieving adequate audit coverage in the remainder of 2012-13 be endorsed.