Agenda item

The Head of Internal Audit, Anti-Fraud and Assurance submitted a report detailing the current position in terms of implementation of the agreed actions reported to the Committee at its September 2021 meeting, following the External Quality Assessment (EQA) undertaken by CIPFA in July 2021.

The requirement to have an EQA and to maintain a Quality Assurance and Improvement Programme (QAIP) for the Internal Audit function is required by the Public Sector Internal Audit Standards 2017 (PSIAS).

Since the previous QAIP/EQA report in September 2021, progress in continuous improvement activity included:

·         The annual report for each client organisation now included a separate

annual assurance opinion for the governance, risk, and control elements.

·         The Terms of Reference template had been updated to confirm the circulation list for draft and final reports.

·         The requirement to have a framework upon which an IT specialist auditor could be commissioned had been considered. There would not be requirement for a specialist IT auditor within the current financial year plans, but this would be kept under review.

·         A re-structure of the service was implemented on 1st June 2022. This would provide for succession planning, should key officers leave the organisation.

RESOLVED

(i)            That the proposed QAIP Framework which sets out how it would meet the requirements set out in the PSIAS is noted; and

(ii)          That the Committee should receive an annual update report on the delivery of the QAIP.