Issue - meetings

The Strategic Director & Section 151 Officer introduced the report on behalf of the Strategic Director & Monitoring Officer and drew members’ attention to the three issues that had been identified as requiring further consideration and action, as listed in paragraph 11.14 of the report.  The Strategic Director and the Senior Policy and Programme Manager responded to members’ questions.

One Member drew attention to inconsistencies between some of the wording used in the AGS and that included in the Annual Financial Report, particularly relating to references to the Committee.  It was agreed that further checks be undertaken to ensure the two documents were reconciled.

The importance of ensuring there was no further slippage to deferred items in the internal audit programme was emphasised and the requirement to carefully monitor progress in the quarterly update reports was highlighted.  It was agreed that a further recommendation be added to reflect this point.

In response to particular questions regarding the Programme and Project Management, the Strategic Director confirmed this had been prepared in draft form and further commentary could be provided in the Q1 report to the September meeting.

RESOLVED:

1.            That, subject to recommendation 3, the Annual Governance Statement for 2021/22 be approved (as set out in appendix 1 of the report) for inclusion in the Draft Annual Financial Report 2021/22 which is included as AG082 above.

2.            That the issues arising and proposed actions identified in appendix 1 of the report be noted and the progress against the actions be brought back to the committee as an appendix to the quarterly governance monitoring report.

3.            That the Strategic Director be authorised to make minor drafting changes to the statement to ensure consistency between the AGS and the Annual Financial Report and to add a statement to the “Role of Internal Audit” wording in section 7.8 to stress the importance that approved slippage in the 2021/22 programme was fully addressed in 2022/23.