The Committee considered the report from the Council’s internal audit manager (KPMG) for the period November to December 2020 which included the final audit report in respect of North Downs Housing Ltd (NDH), which had been presented in draft form at the 19 November 2020 meeting. The final report for Burchatts Farm Barn would be presented to the 25 March meeting of this Committee with additional information and a specific covering report to add some context and background to support the management responses.
In relation to NDH, KPMG had reviewed the governance arrangements used by the Council to manage NDH and assessed whether they were sufficient to monitor the performance of the subsidiary. To do this, they looked at the overarching governance model in place, the arrangements that were used to monitor the performance of the subsidiary and how issues were identified and escalated appropriately, and how individuals were held to account for implementing actions arising.
KPMG had provided partial assurance (amber/red rating) as a result of their review, which had derived from a lack of consistent and regular performance management between the Council and the subsidiary as well as there being no formalised and approved terms of reference in place for the NDH Board or Guildford Borough Council Holdings Ltd board. KPMG had agreed four recommendations with management, one of which was of a high priority.
The Committee was informed that the Board would be considering KPMG’s recommendations at its next meeting. The chairman asked that details of how the recommendations were to be implemented be circulated to members of the committee following that meeting.
In relation to Burchatts Farm Barn, KPMG had been asked to review the process for disposing of community assets using Burchatts Farm Barn as a case study. The scope of their work had two objectives, first to assess the robustness of the Council's documented procedures for disposing of community assets and second to review the Council's corporate record in order to assess compliance with that stated process. KPMG had provided partial assurance (amber/red rating) as a result of their review, which had derived from a lack of consistent and codified processes for disposing of community assets and also improvements required to the corporate record to support the decision making and also to evidence the process as it proceeded.
KPMG had agreed nine recommendations with management, two of which were of a high priority.
The Committee
RESOLVED: That the summary of audit reports for the period 1 November to 31 December 2020 be noted together with the recommendations to management arising from the governance reports.
Reason:
To ensure good governance arrangements and internal control by undertaking an adequate level of audit coverage.