Agenda item

Shail Shah, Head of Audit and Risk, and John Slater, Group Auditor, introduced the report on the Annual Governance Statement (AGS) for 2018/19 to the Committee. A number of the issues raised within this report have been discussed as part of previous items at this committee. The following points were highlighted.

(a)  The 2018/19 AGS was considered twice last year by this committee but as the accounts have changed the AGS has to be republished to reflect the findings of the External Auditors;

(b)  External Auditors are still to complete the Value For Money aspect of the audit to complete, and updates have been made to take into account the movements in the accounts and the Covid-19 pandemic;

(c)  There are 6 significant issues highlighted within the report which have been discussed at previous Audit Committee meetings. These are:

·  Financial impact of Covid-19 pandemic

·  Robin Hood Energy

·  Capital Programme

·  NCC Governance for Group companies

·  Financial resilience

·  Ofsted focused visit and resulting improvement Programme

(d)  Previous iterations of the report did not highlight these significant issues as the issues have developed over the last year. The Opinion on governance has been changed as a result of developing situation.

During questions and discussion the following points and further information were highlighted:

(e)   Attention was drawn to the nine actions in section 9 of the published report;

(f)  Concerns were raised around how a work programme to address the actions detailed in the published report would be integrated into existing work programmes across the Council to ensure there was no duplication, and the limited resources the Council has due to necessary cutbacks as a result of budget pressures. A coordinated and focused corporate set of priorities for review is needed to show which actions are for Audit Committee to oversee;

(g)  Not all of the actions are appropriate for the Audit Committee to oversee. Officers are driving the actions forward and work will be overseen by Audit, Scrutiny and Executive Committees;

(h)  A considered and in-depth hand over process between the interim Chief Executive and the Chief Executive designate has already started and will continue to do so. This also includes the Corporate Leadership Team.

(i)  It was suggested that a Capital Programme steering group Sub Committee could be re-established to look at the finer detail of the programme to then feed into the committee;

The Chair and Vice-Chair will be meeting with officers to consider any revision of the work plan to ensure prioritisation of the 9 actions detailed in the 2018/19 AGS.

In addition to the recommendations made by the report the Committee considered verbal recommendations put forward during discussion.

Resolved to:

(1)  Approve the Revised Annual Governance Statement 2018/19 as published with the agenda

(2)  Note the late availability of the report

(3)  Note that the Draft Annual Governance Statement 2019/20 is to be presented at the September Audit Committee;

(4)  Ensure that a timescale for each action be presented in the Draft Annual Governance Statement 2019/20 at the September 2020 Audit Committee and that timing for each of those to be integrated into the Audit Committee work plan;

(5)  Consider whether further items of learning need to be considered as actions to be embraced in the Draft Annual Governance Statement 2019/20, particularly around culture, as well as learning around Robin Hood Energy and the Capital Programme.