Agenda item

Committee considered a detailed report, presented by the Head of Internal Audit Consortium, which sought Members approval for the Internal Audit Plan 2024/25.

A key requirement of the Public Sector Internal Audit Standards was that a periodic risk-based plan should be prepared that was sufficiently flexible to reflect the changing risks and priorities of the organisation.  The risk-based plan should be fixed for a period of no longer than one year and should outline the assignments to be carried out, their respective priorities, and the estimated resources needed.

Some reserve audit areas had been included at the end of the plan and whilst every effort would be made to complete the 2024/25 planned areas first, a list of reserve areas would provide more flexibility, as at certain times of the year, particularly year end there could be legitimate reasons why an audit was not feasible at a particular time.  If the contingency days were not required then these would be utilised on the reserve areas.

An annual report summarising the outcome of the 2023/24 Internal Audit Plan would be presented to Members after the year-end. Some of the areas within the 2023/24 Internal Audit Plan had been carried forward to 2024/25.

Resource availability had been based on the Consortium Business Plan which would be approved by the Joint Board on 27^th March 2024.  483 days were allocated in total.

It was intended to allocate 73 days to Dragonfly Ltd., and some of these days would be utilised to develop and agree their plan moving forward once the role of Internal Audit had been clarified and agreed with the Shareholder and Dragonfly Boards.  The audit of Dragonfly Management functions was business as usual, however, clarity was still required in relation to the role in respect of Dragonfly Development Ltd.

The plan was ambitious and reliant upon having a full staffing complement and fully trained staff so the plan may not be completed in its entirety.

Any amendments made to the plan would be brought back to Audit Committee for approval.

In response to a Member’s query regarding supplemental resources in the Audit team, the Head of Internal Audit noted that an advantage of being part of a consortium was a team of auditors were based between the three councils, Bolsover, Chesterfield and North East, and resources could be rearranged to ensure all three councils had their plan completed. There was also a contingency resource to bring in agency staff or look at other options if necessary and the Section 151 Officer at Chesterfield Borough Council was looking at future consideration for apprentices in the wider plan for the Audit Consortium.

The Chief Executive added that the Council was in full support of apprentices and there were many in the Council.  However, she was against creating apprenticeships were there would be no vacancy at the end of the apprenticeship training.

Moved by Councillor Tom Munro and seconded by Councillor Carol Wood

RESOLVED that: 1) the Internal Audit Plan for 2024/25 be agreed,

2)    that the plan was provisional and may need adjusting and prioritising in the light of any emerging risks / staff shortages etc be noted.