The Head of Infernal Audit, Anti-Fraud and Assurance will submit a report presenting an updated indicative Internal Audit Plan for the financial (audit) year 2020/21. (The original Plan had been intended to be submitted to the March meeting which was subsequently cancelled). The updated Plan accommodates urgent advice and assurance work in response to the impact of Covid 19.
Minutes:
The Head of Internal Audit, Anti-Fraud and Assurance submitted a report presenting an updated indicative Internal Audit Plan for the financial (audit) year 2020/21. The original Plan had been intended to be submitted to the March meeting, which had subsequently been cancelled. The updated Plan accommodated urgent advice and assurance work in response to the impact of Covid 19.
The Plan outlined the rationale and process for setting the Plan, the Risk Management considerations and how Internal Audit resources were calculated and deployed. It required a further review with Senior Management in order to ensure that it was focussed on priority areas and was aligned to the Internal Audit resources available for the remainder of the financial year.
In addition, it was also reported that the planned restructure of the Service, following the departure of an Audit Manager towards the end of 2019/20, had been delayed due to Covid 19 and resources were having to be prioritised to the pandemic at this time. This would impact on the resources available for a temporary period until the revised structure had been approved and implemented, hopefully by December/January.
Members attention was drawn to key aspects of the Indicative Plan as outlined within Paragraph 3.1 of the report now submitted and it was noted that the Plan and its priorities would be subject to ongoing review throughout the year.
The Head of Internal Audit, Anti-Fraud and Assurance commented on a recent security breach he had been informed about within one of the Council’s partner organisations. This had been identified at an early stage and remedial action had been taken.
RESOLVED:-
(i) That the revised indicative Internal Audit Plan 2020/21 be approved in principle acknowledging the need for the Head of Internal Audit, Anti-Fraud and Assurance to complete further consultations with Senor Management; and
(ii) That a further update on the proposed final Internal Audit Plan for 2020/21 be submitted for approval at the meeting to be held on the 29th July, 2020.