Audit Committee

Thursday 1 September 2005 at 3.00 pm

Present:  Councillors Hill, McCabe, McCormick (M), Mitchell, Nimmo, Roach, Robertson and Stewart.

Chair:    Councillor McCabe presided.

In attendance:  Chief Executive, Depute Chief Executive, Director of Community Services, Mr A Henderson (for Director of Education Services), Chief Financial Officer, Mr H McNeilly (for Solicitor to the Council) and Chief Internal Auditor.

Present Also:   Ms E Barrowman, Audit Scotland.

The following paragraphs are submitted for information only, having been dealt with under the powers delegated to the Committee.

618

Internal Audit “Job Worth Doing” Follow Up Action Plan

618

There was submitted a report dated 9 August 2005 by the Chief Financial Officer on progress made regarding the Action Plan resulting from the Audit Scotland follow up report “A Job Worth Doing - Raising the Standard of Internal Audit in Scottish Councils”.

Decided:  that the Committee endorse the progress as reported in the appendix to the report.

619

2003/04 Members’ Letter Action Plan

619

There was submitted a report dated 11 August 2005 by the Chief Financial Officer on the progress made in relation to the approved Action Plan resulting from the 2003/04 Final Accounts audit process.

Decided:  that the Committee endorse the progress made in relation to the approved Action Plan as set out in the appendix to the report.

620

Main Accounting System Action Plan

620

There was submitted a report dated 8 August 2005 by the Chief Financial Officer on the progress made in relation to the Main Accounting System Action Plan resulting from the recent External Audit of the system.

Decided:  that the Committee endorse the progress made in relation to the Main Accounting System Action Plan as set out in the appendix to the report.

621

External Audit Reports

621

There was submitted a report dated 17 August 2005 by the Chief Financial Officer providing a summary of the main findings of the reports produced by Audit Scotland since the last meeting of the Committee.

Decided:

(1)      that the Committee approve the matters raised in the executive summary;  and

(2)      that in future, a consolidated exception report be submitted to the Committee, detailing progress on all issues identified by External Audit.

622

Format of Budget Monitoring Reports

622

There was submitted a report dated 29 July 2005 by the Chief Financial Officer (1) requesting the Committee to consider the current format of the monitoring reports presented to the Committee and (2) explaining the reasons why Period 12 monitoring reports are not presented to Service Committees as a matter of course.

Decided:

(1)      that the report be noted;  and

(2)      that the proposals as contained in paragraphs 5.1 and 5.2 of the report be approved including continuation of the current practice of not submitting Period 12 monitoring reports to Committee to allow Accountancy employees to concentrate on submitting the year end accounts.

623

Internal Audit - Quarterly Report

623

There was submitted a report dated 9 August 2005 by the Chief Internal Auditor appending the quarterly monitoring report on Internal Audit Activity for the period to 31 July 2005.

Decided:

(1)      that the Committee note the action taken by the Chief Internal Auditor in respect of expediting timeous responses to Internal Audit reports;  and

(2)      that the Committee endorse the continuing progress made by Internal Audit as detailed in the report.

It was agreed in terms of Section 50(A)(4) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 as amended, that the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the following item on the grounds that the business involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraphs 1, 6 and 14 of Part I of Schedule 7(A) of the Act.

624

Internal Audit - Quarterly Report:  Appendix

624

There was submitted appendix to Internal Audit quarterly monitoring report to 31 July 2005 providing details of a number of special investigations.

Decided:  that the action as detailed in the appendix be endorsed.