Agenda item

To consider Actions Plans for:

1)    Responses to the External Auditor’s Annual Audit Report for 2023-24 Recommendations and;

2)    Responses to the External Auditor’s Audit Finding’s report for 2024-24

The Deputy Chief Executive, Terry Collier presented the action plans developed in response to the recommendations from the Annual Audit Report and the Audit Findings Report for 2023-24. The Committee was asked to approve these action plans and to include updates on progress as a standing item in future meetings. The Annual Audit and Audit Finding’s Reports 2023-24 highlighted several issues that required addressing to rebuild assurance in financial and governance arrangements. The action plans aimed to improve the audit process for 2024-25 onwards and ensure better audit reports. Key measures included increasing finance team capacity, implementing a new software and providing additional training.

The Deputy Chief Executive also highlighted that following discussions with the Chair and Vice-Chair, and additional column for Committee sign-off was introduced to both plan templates to make clear that the plans were owned by the committee and could be amended as needed. The Committee raised concerns about the lack of a priority level column and that a lot of the target completion dates were in close range which may be unattainable. The Chief Accountant noted that each issue and recommendation was a priority and responded that many completion dates were similar due to interconnectivity of topics, however an ordered approach would be adopted. The representative from Grant Thornton confirmed that the action plans would be closely monitored in the next months to understand the priorities and evidence which was required as part of the audit planning process for 2024-25.

The Committee initiated discussions by considering each Key Recommendation on the Annual Audit Report 2023/2024 Action Plan individually. Much of the discussions were focused on increasing the involvement of the Financial Reporting Working Group to guide the financial report writing process to make it more effective. Concerns were raised about potential conflicts of interest with the Group Head Assets recent appointment as a Director of Knowle Green Estates. It was explained that measures were in place to mitigate any perceived conflicts of interest. Additional points included providing the sinking fund model in Excel format for better interrogation, efforts to avoid supplementary agendas, and ensuring timely notice of meetings.

The Deputy Chief Executive reinforced that the actions to address recommendations were a key priority and all feedback was noted. At the next scheduled Audit Committee, members would be presented with a set of other external review action plans in similar format as presented this evening. This would include a Public Interest Report Action Plan summary (PIR), alongside a Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) and BVI action plans if feasible. The ultimate objective was to integrate all plans into one master action plan for ease of reference.

It was proposed by Councillor Williams, seconded by Councillor Boughtflower and agreed to suspend Standing Order 38.3 to continue the meeting beyond three hours.

The Committee resolved to:

1)    Approve the Action Plan for responses to the External Auditor’s Annual Audit Report for 2023-24 Recommendations

2)    Agree to add to the Forward Plan for the Committee, as a standing item, updates on progress against the plans to be received at each meeting of the Committee

Due to time constraints, the committee were unable to consider the Action Plan responses to the External Auditor’s Audit Finding’s report for 2023-24 and consequently did not approve the plan. This action plan will be subject to consideration and approval at the next scheduled Audit Committee.

Meeting ended at 22:29