Venue: Multi-Location Meeting - Council Chamber, Port Talbot & Microsoft Teams. View directions
Contact: Naidine Jones Email: n.s.jones@npt.gov.uk
No. | Item |
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Appointment of Chair and Vice Chair for the Civic Year 2025/2026 Minutes: That
Lay Member, Joanna Jenkins, be appointed Chairperson of the Committee for the
2025/26 Civic Year. That
Lay Member, Andrew Bagley, be appointed Vice Chairperson of the Committee for
the 2025/26 Civic Year. |
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Chairperson's Announcement/s Minutes: The
Chairperson welcomed all to the meeting. |
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Minutes of Previous Meeting Minutes: The
minutes of the previous meeting held on the 21st
February, 2025, were approved as a true and accurate
account. |
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Forward Work Programme Minutes: The Democratic
Services Officer mentioned that the Forward Work Programme will be sent out to
Officers immediately after the meeting to populate items for the year ahead. Members expressed they would like the committee to
have a training session and to be added to the Forward Work Programme. |
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Audit Wales NPT Financial Sustainability and Local Government Sustainability Reports Additional documents:
Decision: That the report be noted. Minutes: Members
received an overview of the circulated reports. Members
mentioned that under the heading Exhibit 2, Common themes of Section 114
reports, there are four points, the third one states a common theme of the
Section 114 reports inadequate governance processes and highlights a
significant lack of oversight by Councillors. Members stated it's
so important that as a Governance and Audit Committee, members understood their
role and fulfil their brief. In relation to
the timing of the report, Members highlighted it was issued in September 24 and
asked was there a reason why it hadn’t come to the Committee earlier. Officers
explained they wanted to wait for the national report to be published before
the local report was brought back, as that provided some context. Members
mentioned they note the commonality of findings with the national report and
asked were Audit Wales planning to do anything further in this space as there’s
an issue that a lot of authorities are struggling with. Audit Wales
explained that this work has led to two further pieces of work being included
in the Local Government studies programme for 25/26. One is looking at the
issue around how local government is funded, Audit Wales explained they heard
some consistent messages around the struggle that Councils have around the lack
of multi-year settlements, the lateness of the settlement figures coming to
local government and some of those challenges around additional duties, and
powers being put on local government without the funding to go with it. Audit
Wales highlighted they would looking at this into further detail. Audit Wales
highlighted the other piece of additional work in this area is around the
school's balances, there is an emerging picture around those school balances
going in a negative direction, they are the two identified pieces of work. In terms of the local context, Audit Wales explained they have an
ongoing assurance and risk assessment work and keep a brief on what the
Council's doing in response to the recommendations that have been issued. Audit Wales highlighted
that part of the duty of the Governance and Audit
Committee is that they are satisfied that the Council is taking due regard to
external auditors’ recommendations and the recommendations of its own internal
audit. Officers
mentioned they would bring an update on Medium
Term Financial Plan to Governance and Audit Committee in
September. Resolved: That the report
be noted.
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Audit Wales - Programme & Timetable - Quarter 4 Update January to March 2025 Additional documents: Decision: That the report be noted. Minutes: Members received an overview of the circulated
report and added that the review of commissioning arrangements has
been completed. The report is published and will be coming to the Governance
and Audit Committee in July. Audit Wales explained they are finalising the
report on the review of the Council's cyber arrangements and have recently
concluded the field work stage of the review of risk management arrangements,
both of those reports will be coming to Governance and Audit Committee in due
course. Members asked
what the timeline was for the risk management arrangements. Audit Wales
explained it is their intention to issue a draft report to the Council in June.
Officers explained they would try and get the report to the Committee by
September/October 2025. Members asked how long they give management to respond
to the draft report when it is issued. Audit Wales explained they have two
weeks to respond. Members asked in
terms of the grants, is there anything that the committee should be concerned
about in terms of the time span between a grant finishing and the claim and
liability. Audit Wales
explained that the bulk of the delays fell on Audit Wales side. There was a
delay with a number of areas of work post COVID and
some resourcing issues which have now been addressed and have caught up. Audit Wales expressed its a longer delay than they should have been given but are now in a better
position and there is no impact on terms of the funding for the grants. RESOLVED: That the report
be noted. |
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Audit Wales Audit Plan 2025 Additional documents: Decision: That the report be noted. Minutes: Members
received an overview of the circulated report. In relation to
Cyber Security, members asked does the review cover extended enterprise risk. Audit Wales
explained there is a project brief for the work which will set out the
questions and the criteria, Council Officers are able to share the project
brief with the Committee. Audit Wales
highlighted they would invite an Officer to Governance and Audit Committee in
the future to talk about Cyber Security. Resolved: That
the report be noted.
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Audit Wales Annual Summary 2024 Additional documents: Decision: That
the report be noted. Minutes: Members
received an overview of the circulated report. Resolved: That
the report be noted. |
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Register of Regulators Reports & Recommendations Additional documents: Decision: That the report be noted. Minutes: Members
received an overview of the circulated report. Members
highlighted the first page the column headings and would be merit in replicating
the column headings on each page. Members asked for more clarity in relation to
the target dates and the phrases TBC and TBA. Officers
explained this is a piece of work that will be looked at prior to July's
meeting and would like to update the regulator's reports to give a bit more
meaning and adding a bit of value to the reports. Officers mentioned they would
be able to close off some of the recommendations that have been dealt with and
will be reflecting on the open recommendations for further progress. Resolved: That the report be noted. |
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Draft Internal Audit Annual Plan 25/26 Additional documents:
Decision: That the report be noted. Minutes: Members received an overview of the circulated
report. A typing error was highlighted
on page 171 - it should read ‘24/25 carry forward activities’ and ‘completion
of 24/25’ activities, as opposed to 23/24. Members
asked in relation to the sickness estimate on page 179,
whether it is based on current sickness levels. The Audit Manager confirmed a 10-day sickness
estimate had been applied per FTE, in line with the prior year approach. The
Internal Audit team have 7.86 FTE. The approach is robust and part of Plan
contingency. Wider contingency is held within the plan, for example for vacancy
management. If
there is significant sick leave or turnover within
the team, there is the option to commission days (ICT or operational audit)
where needed and appropriate. Members mentioned it would be helpful to have
understood some of the mapping which ended up in the plans. The Audit Manager thanked Members for their
feedback. Officers
highlighted that for the 25/26 risk-based planning
exercise, a meeting was offered and held with chair and vice chair to discuss
risk themes, audit needs and wider assurance streams. Officers explained that
the approach will be updated for 26/27 and include a risk-based audit planning
workshop offer with Committee. This will include information on risk-based
audit planning method and assurance mapping, and get committees views on key
risks for consideration. Members highlighted a timing gap between SLT
endorsement of the plan and Governance and Audit committee approval. Members
asked does that cause a delivery issue and is the time of the meeting not
optimum. The
Audit Manager confirmed that the timing of endorsement and approval has not
impacted audit delivery or prioritisation in the first two months of 25/26.
Officers explained that audit and investigation work
doesn't all fully align to the audit year start/end dates and that some
activities will straddle year end. The Internal Audit team have prioritised the
2024/25 carry forward work to enable conclusion at the earliest opportunity in
2025/26. Alongside
carry forward activities, officers explained that service level agreements are in place for a number of work streams. For
example, a three-year audit cycle is in place for local authority maintained
schools. SLAs and carry forward audits & investigations have been
prioritised to date in 2025/26. The Audit Manager confirmed that the 26/27 Plan
will be targeted for Committee approval in March 2026. Members asked for information on the monthly
creditor testing. Officers explained the historic position. The creditors
review occurred on a monthly basis up to 24/25 and was in the plan due to a
risk area highlighted by the previous Audit Manager. For 25/26, creditors
review is significantly reducing and will target the Council creditors pilot
scheme controls only. From 26/27, the activity theme should then come off the plan. Members asked are Officers developing an audit
universe. Officers mentioned they currently have an audit universe and would bring the updated version to the risk-based audit planning 26/27 workshop. Officers explained that an Audit Universe is the range of potential ... view the full minutes text for item 10. |
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Draft Internal Audit Charter (including Mandate) 25/26 and Internal Audit Strategy 25/26 Additional documents:
Decision: That the Governance and Audit
Committee Draft Internal Audit Plan 2025/26 at Appendix 1, be approved. Minutes: Members
received an overview of the circulated report. Members asked how Officers will measure and
demonstrate delivery against the objectives. The Audit Manager confirmed that the objectives and
initiatives will be a golden thread through strategic audit documents.
Including the Quality Assurance and Improvement Programme targets for 25/26 and
future Annual Report outcomes. RESOLVED: That
the Draft Internal Audit Charter 2025/26 at Appendix 1, be approved. That
the Draft Internal Audit Strategy 2025/26 at Appendix 2, be approved. |
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Internal Audit Update Report 2024/25 Additional documents:
Decision: That the Draft Internal Audit
Charter 2025/26 at Appendix 1, be approved. That the Draft Internal Audit
Strategy 2025/26 at Appendix 2, be approved. Minutes: Members
received an overview of the circulated report. In relation to the payroll administrative audit,
members asked Officers to confirm whether the scope noting its substantial
assurance considered access, authorisation and segregation of duties. Officers
confirmed that yes it did. Members highlighted the performance data audit
which was deferred into the current year plan and previously discussed model
governance or end user computing application risk. Members asked if there was
a plan to start weaving that into the audits. Officers expressed the reason the performance data
audit deferral, in line with the narrative on pack page 214. There will be
opportunity to review and update the specific audit scope within 25/26 and
consider the relevance of model governance. Members mentioned that whilst the level of
mandatory training achieved post audit review was 63.8%, the completion rate
now is above 75% for five of the mandatory courses, which is an improvement. RESOLVED: That
the report be noted. |
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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. |
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Private Report of the Head of Legal Services. |
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Report of the Head of Legal Services. |
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- Committee Resolved into Open Session - |
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Special investigations Update report Decision: That
the report be noted. Minutes: Members
received an overview of the private circulated report. RESOLVED: That
the report be noted. |