Agenda item

The Committee considered a report on progress made by the Council’s internal audit manager (KPMG) on their internal audit plan for 2022-23 for the period April to July 2022, which included a summary of the work that they had concluded since the previous report to Committee and what they had planned to do ahead of the next.  The report also reviewed the design and effectiveness of performance monitoring arrangements through review of three environment-themed key performance indicators (KPIs) from the most recent performance report, ‘Corporate Performance Reporting’ considered by the Committee on 21 April 2022.  These KPIs were as follows:

·       ENV2 - Household Waste Recycled and Composted

·       ENV3 - Number of fly tips:

·       ENV4 - Number of outstanding statutory nuisance investigations

Overall, KPMG had provided a ‘significant assurance with minor improvement’ green-amber rating in this regard.

In debating this item, the Committee raised the following points:

·       In response to a question as to how KPMG selected the three KPIs from the Council’s large suite of KPIs and why were the three all from the Environment portfolio, KPMG noted that the this was the third year consecutively of looking at performance monitoring as part of the head of internal audit opinion.  One of the four key areas covered was data quality and it was felt that this was a sufficient way to do that.  A different set of performance indicators was reviewed on each occasion. The scope of internal audit review involved a ‘deep dive’ into these performance indicators and undertaking a full and substantive audit testing around them.  KPMG reviewed all the source data available to ensure that the reported performance figures were accurate, and they felt that having three KPIs in-scope was sufficient for that purpose.

·       In response to a question as to what recommendations KPMG had made to the Council in respect on ENV4 to address the inability to provide the underlying data to support the most recently reported KPI figure, and also whether KPMG were able to find data for the number of statutory nuisance investigations considered as opposed to those that were actually outstanding, KPMG indicated that the amber coloured finding around the formal review of KPI data within the summary of key findings had recommended that the officers responsible for the outstanding nuisance investigations reviewed with IT the apparent system limitation which prevented them from providing the data. KPMG also confirmed that the purpose of ENV4 was specifically to report the number of outstanding statutory nuisance investigations not the number of completed investigations.

·       Although not directly relevant to the ENV3 KPI, which only recorded the number of incidents of fly-tipping, it was suggested that there should be a report to councillors on the cost to the Council of clearing up fly-tips together with initiatives to prevent fly-tipping

The Committee

RESOLVED: That the Internal Audit Progress Report (April to July 2022), attached as Appendix 1 to the report submitted to the Committee, together with the key findings from the reviews undertaken since the last report to the Committee, be noted.

Reason:

To ensure good governance arrangements and internal control by undertaking an adequate level of audit coverage.