To consider the report.

Andrew Vallance said that the report was a summary of the work completed by the previous internal auditors, from the shared service with Wokingham Borough Council. The key piece of information for the Committee to consider was the audit opinion, which was that control was substantially completed and effective but some improvements were required. Most key controls were in place with risks reduced to an adequate level, with a small number of exceptions identified. SWAP would do audits on these areas to ensure that actions had been followed up. Three category 3 opinions had been carried forward; debtors, cash and bank reconciliations, and reconciliations which were financial and non-financial.

Councillor L Jones commented on debtors, she asked if the council picked up on comments like performance against corporate expectations as there was no measure.

Andrew Vallance responded and said that more work would be done corporately on debt.

Councillor L Jones asked if the action plans would be seen by the Committee. She was informed that they would be.

Councillor Sharpe was concerned around the number of outstanding actions and wanted to understand what the impact would be on RBWM finances.

Adele Taylor said that the last two years had been a challenge when considering corporate debt, due to the measures that were put in place. It was not easy to put some of the recommendations in place as a result. Adult social care debt would have a specific focus, the raising of debt was difficult due to the measures from the pandemic. Corporate debt would be a focus area for officers going forward. SWAP would follow up on the recommendations that had been made in the report.

The Chairman commented on the temporary staffing in the housing team, now permanent staff were in place. The temporary accommodation would start in September 2021, the Chairman asked for clarification on if the post was temporary.

Adele Taylor confirmed that it was a permanent post around temporary accommodation.

Councillor Hilton commented on the debt monitoring and that there was no exception reporting so that it was in the threshold of what was expected.

Adele Taylor added that it was an area that officers wanted to focus on, particularly around the performance measures.

Councillor L Jones said that part of the remit of internal audit was to make the relevant Cabinet Member aware of any risks that had been identified and were coming forward. She felt that it would also be appropriate to advise the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Audit & Governance Committee too. On resource issues impacting the achievement of goals, Councillor L Jones asked if resource issues had been resolved.

Adele Taylor said that there had been significant turnover in the service area, she could not confirm whether the issue had been resolved. Some additional finance temporary resource had been brought in to support the housing team.

Councillor Sharpe said that 40 audits had been undertaken by the shared audit service at Wokingham, six had been completed and eight were substantially complete. This meant that there were a number of outstanding issues which the new internal audit partners, SWAP, would be able to consider.

Adele Taylor clarified that this was the overall audit opinion which had been given by the internal auditors. If everything in the audit came out green, that would be a concern as the council would not be picking up things that needed to be monitored or improved.

Councillor Sharpe agreed that the high risk areas should be focused on.

Councillor L Jones felt that the report was very finance based, the remit of internal audit was more than that. However, reading more of the report this had been noted and she hoped that governance would also be considered by internal audit going forward.

Adele Taylor said that a significant amount of time had to be spent by internal audit considering Covid grants.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the Audit and Governance Committee noted:

i)             The annual report from SAIS.

ii)            The Annual Internal Audit Opinion.