Venue: Remotely via Teams
Contact: Nicola Headon
No. | Item |
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Minutes of Previous Meeting PDF 75 KB Minutes: RESOLVED: That the Minutes of the
meeting held on 14 September 2020, be approved. |
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Local Authority Elections Wales Bill 2020 PDF 64 KB Minutes: Members received an update
on the Local Government and Elections
(Wales) Bill 2020 and how it would impact on the Council. Officers
explained that a Member’s Seminar would take place during the next few months this
would explain the various elements going forward and would present the Action
Plan officers were currently working on as to how the council would implement
the new measures. It
was highlighted that there were some specific provisions in respect of Audit
Committee, an overview of the changes were detailed in the circulated
report. It was noted that there was no
firm date as to when the changes would be implemented, but Members would be
kept informed. Committee
Members were requested to keep the Voting Lay Member of Audit Committee
informed of any changes. RESOLVED: That
the report be noted |
|
Audit Wales - Verbal Update Minutes: Members
received a verbal update from Audit Wales. In
terms of Audit Wales Plans:- ·
Financial Audit was on-going ·
It was anticipated that the audit of Housing Benefits would be completed
by the 31 January 2021 deadline. ·
Audit Planning had started on the Councils 2021 Statement of Accounts. ·
Audit deadlines could be pushed back to September 2021, Audit Wales were
in discussion with Welsh Government as to the flexibility of time. ·
In terms of Performance Audit Work, the work included in the 2020 Audit
Plan had largely been completed, some areas were still being worked on. ·
The review of Corporate
Performance Management System the draft output was issued during December
2020. ·
Workforce Planning review was underway. ·
Financial Sustainability Phase 2 work building on work undertaken in
2020 was about to commence and the Assurance and Risk Assessment Project was
schedule to be feedback to Corporate Directors during February 2021. ·
The audit work completed during 2020 was being summarised in the Annual
Audit Summary report which was currently in draft. National
reports recently published included: ·
Providing Free School Meals during Lockdown (published November 2020). ·
Covering Teachers Absence, follow up from work done previously
(published November 2020). ·
Welsh Community Care information system (published October 2020) ·
National Fraud Initiative (NFI) in Wales 2018/2020 (published October
20), this also included a NFI self-appraisal checklist, which would help
officers leading NFI work. ·
Work on the Financial Sustainability of Local Government (published
October 2020) along with the Commercialisation in Local Government Report
(published October 2020). It
was highlighted that plans were being kept under regular review taking into
account audit priorities. RESOLVED: That the verbal update was noted. |
|
Audit Wales Letter to Audited Bodies PDF 101 KB Minutes: Members
received an update from Audit Wales on the letter to all Audited Bodies from Auditor General for Wales outlining
our data analytics ambitions and asking for audited bodies support, as detailed
in the circulated report. Members
questioned whether officers agreed with the statement made in the letter that
the new approach would save time and effort,
officers responded that in terms of saving time and effort they would
need before commenting. A
discussion took place around data and storage, Audit Wales explained that Audit
Wales had a data warehouses hosted in the cloud in Ireland. In terms of data ingestion and changing
systems, there were no expectations that Local Authorities would be required to
change systems, there were many systems in Local Government and Audit Wales
would be working with those systems to ensure Local Authorities could provide
the information required. Audit
Wales went onto explain they were looking at the data analytics route to help us
provide audit opinions and to provide data informatics to give the public more
information on data presented. Officers
highlighted that the council would require a data sharing agreement if the data
was used for any specific purposes. RESOLVED: That the Audit Wales Letter
to Audited Bodies, be noted. |
|
Audit Committee Annual Report 2019/2020 PDF 38 KB Minutes: Members
received an overview of the Audit Committee Annual Report 2019/2020, as
detailed in the circulated report. RESOLVED: That approval be granted to
forward the Annual Report 2019/2020 to Council. |
|
Internal Audit Progress Report PDF 84 KB Minutes: The Committee received an overview of the Internal Audit Progress
Report for work undertaken since the last Audit Committee during September
2020, as detailed in the circulated report. Officers highlighted that during the period when Council meetings were
suspended all Urgency Actions tested conformed with the Urgency Action
Protocol. Members were happy with the
progress of all internal audit work which had been undertaken. RESOLVED: That the
report be noted. |
|
Treasury Management Monitoring 2020/2021 PDF 102 KB Minutes: The
Committee received the Treasury Management Monitoring 2020/2021 information as
detailed in the circulated report. RESOLVED: That the report be noted. |
|
Access to Meetings That
pursuant to Section 100A(4) and (5) of the Local Government Act 1972, the
public be excluded for the following items of business which involved the
likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 12 and 15 of
Part 4 of Schedule 12A of the above Act. Minutes: RESOLVED: that pursuant to Section 100A(4) and (5) of the Local Government Act
1972, the public be excluded for the following items of business which involved
the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 12, 13 and
14 of Part 4 of Schedule 12A to the above Act. |
|
Higher Risk Rating Audits Minutes: Members received an update on all audits undertaken since the Audit
Committee meeting held during September 2020, which had a risk rating of 3, 4
or 5 applied and all special investigations, as detailed in the private
circulated report. RESOLVED: That the report be noted. |
|
Attempted Cheque Fraud Minutes: Members were provided with an update, as detailed in the private
circulated report. RESOLVED: That the report be noted. |