Issue - meetings

Internal Audit Progress Report

Meeting: 29/07/2019 - Audit, Risk and Governance Committee (Item 5)

5 Internal Audit Progress Report pdf icon PDF 21 KB

:

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Ruth Lowry, Head of Internal Audit, presented a report outlining the updates on the Internal Audit Service's work. The report included key findings, issues of concern and actions undertaken as a result of the work. The committee considered the final internal audit progress report and outcomes of the work for 2018/19 for the period to 30 June 2019.

 

It was highlighted that:

 

·  The internal audit annual report for 2018/19 had previously provided moderate assurance overall and this opinion continued to be supported by the audit results since then. There were just two pieces of work outstanding from 2018/19 regarding ICT controls which would be brought to the next meeting of this committee, along with 2019/20 audit work. 

 

·  The service areas in which the audit findings had concluded only limited assurance could be given were highlighted and the summary of findings for each was explained.

 

·  Local Pension Partnership Ltd (LPP) had to some degree anticipated the assessments made by its internal auditor, Deloitte, which had reported ineffective assurance in four out of the seven areas reported. The business was currently working through a period of significant adjustment and work was underway to address the issues raised. The audit results and actions to be taken to mitigate these would be reported to the Pension Fund Committee in September 2019.

 

In response to questions from members the following information was clarified:

 

·  Where limited assurance was given, actions to mitigate the risks were agreed between the internal auditor and the relevant manager/ head of service. The reports and action plans could be provided to members on request. All agreed actions would be then followed up to ensure they had been put in place or superseded and the resulting data would be reported to the committee.

 

·  The re-testing of the LPP functions providing limited assurance would be undertaken by Deloitte and the results would be reported to the Pension Fund committee. A senior manager from LPP would also attend that meeting to answer questions. A succinct update would be requested from the Pension Fund committee.

 

·  Some over payments to staff continued to occur but the systems in place supported the process effectively.  It was confirmed that moderate assurance was in place for this area of work, making this a low risk compared to other areas.

 

Resolved: That the Internal Audit progress report, as presented, be noted.

 

: