Issue - meetings

Consideration was given to the report of the Audit & Risk Manager.

The Professional Lead Internal Audit presented the report which provided the Audit & Risk Manager’s objective review of the Authority’s system of internal control during the financial year 2019/20, and the annual audit opinion of the Audit & Risk Manager.

The opinion of the Audit & Risk Manger was that Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council’s system of internal control during the financial year 2019/20 operated to a level which gives Reasonable Assurance on the overall adequacy and effectiveness of the organisation’s framework of governance, risk management and control.

The Officer then went through the report and highlighted points contained therein.

In response to a Member’s comments, the Officer explained that the Appendices attached to the report were also included in the following item on the agenda.  This was the Audit & Risk Manager’s annual report, and her opinion was based on a combination of work that had previously been reported to Committee through the usual Audit Plan Progress Reports.

A Member referred to section 2.2.3 of the report and felt that the wording of the paragraph could be misinterpreted, and the Officer undertook to raise this with the Audit & Risk Manager.

Another Member then referred to section 2.4.2 where it stated that ‘no areas for concern have been highlighted’, and said he would have thought there would always be areas where improvements could be made.

In response the Officer agreed and said there was always areas for improvement.  She explained that the progress reports submitted to the Committee routinely identified weaknesses and actions for Mangers to mitigate these weaknesses, and a follow-up audit was then conducted to ensure that the actions had been addressed.  However, in terms of the Audit & Risk Manager’s opinion for 2019/20, no actual significant trends or areas of concern had been identified that would impact on her audit opinion.

A Member referred to the previous outstanding Statements of Accounts and asked whether these had now been signed-off.

The Audit Wales Officer confirmed that the outstanding accounts for Blaenau Gwent up to 2018/19 was signed off by the Audit General for Wales on the 26^th November, 2020; and the Accounts for 2019/20 would be signed-off at the next meeting of the Audit Committee.

In response to a question raised by a Member regarding the lack of an IT Auditor, the Officer said this was recognised and documented in the service risk register.  It was not unique to Blaenau Gwent and most LA’s lacked specialist IT Auditors.  However, she assured that there was staff within the team that were very competent with IT.

RESOLVED that the report be accepted and the Audit & Risk Manager’s annual audit opinion, as detailed in paragraphs 1.1 and 3.3, be acknowledged, namely:

·        The audit assignments conducted cover a range of activities and provide a reasonable indicator of the level of assurance for the Authority, however, they cannot provide complete coverage and it is acknowledged that assurance procedures alone do not guarantee that all significant risks  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9