The Audit & Assurance Manager presented to the Committee the Annual Internal Audit Report for 2014-15 which updated Members on work carried out through the year including the Assistant Directors (Corporate Performance) opinion as Chief Audit Executive.

The Audit & Assurance Manager went through each appendix and highlighted the following:

·         The team experienced a change of officers which impacted on their performance

·         The majority of the Audit Plan for 2014-15 was delivered but the team were not able to complete four items due to the staff turnover; these items were considered in the development of the 2015-16 Audit Plan.

·         The council continued to implement a very high proportion of the recommendations agreed through audit work in the year.

·         The 2015-16 Audit Plan is underway, and an update will be provided to the Committee in October.

The Chair raised concern on appendix five over the two reds shown in the table. The Audit & Assurance Manager explained that one related to a fraud proofing review of the council's arrangements to reimburse staff business expenses; the review found that procedures in place were not robust enough and had not been sufficiently publicised to staff.

The other related to Reprographics which found issues with the internal pricing structure for jobs carried out within the unit, and other administrative issues.

Management had responded positively to both reviews and formal follow up audits have been scheduled for the 2015-16 financial year.

Member’s agreed to endorse both the work undertaken by the Audit Team in 2014-15 as well as the opinion given by the Assistant Director (Corporate Performance).