Audit and Scrutiny Committee Minute

Agenda

Minutes of Meeting of the Audit and Scrutiny Committee held in the Council Chamber, Council Headquarters, Glenurquhart Road, Inverness on Thursday, 21 August 2008 at 10.30 a.m.

Present:

Mrs J Urquhart, Mr D Bremner, Mr E Hunter, Mr A Rhind, Mr L Fraser, Mr R Greene, Dr A Sinclair, Mr D Mackay, Mr T Prag, Mr A S Park, Mrs A MacLean, Mr G Rimell, Mr H Wood, Mr P Cairns, Mr D Kerr, Mr A Torrance, Mr I Brown, Mr J Gray, Mr J Ford, Mr G Smith

Non-Members also present:

Mr G Farlow, Mr W Fernie, Mr J Rosie, Mrs M Paterson, Dr D Alston

Officials in Attendance:

Mr A Geddes, Depute Chief Executive and Director of Finance, Ms M Morris, Assistant Chief Executive, Mr N Rose, Head of Internal Audit and Risk Management, Mr D Robertson, Head of Accounting, Mr D Lamont, Head of Exchequer, Mr A Thomson, Head of Environmental Health, Miss D Sutherland, Acting Principal Auditor, Miss J MacLennan, Democratic Services Manager, Mrs R Daly, Committee Administrator

Also in attendance:

Mr R Clark, Senior Audit Manager, Audit Scotland, Ms G Menger, Senior Auditor (ICT) Audit Scotland

Mrs J Urquhart in the Chair

Business

An asterisk in the margin denotes a recommendation to the Council. All decisions with no marking in the margin are delegated to the Committee.

1. Apologies for Absence

Apologies for absence were intimated on behalf of Mr B Clark, Mr J MacDonald and Mrs G Sinclair.

2. Recess Powers

The Committee NOTED that Recess Powers granted by the Council at its meeting on 26 June 2008 had not been used in respect of this Committee.

3. Internal Audit Reviews

There had been circulated Report No. AS-14-08 dated 25 July 2008 by the Interim Head of Internal Audit and Risk Management which summarised the final reports issued since the date of the last meeting, together with other information relevant to the operation of the Internal Audit Section, as follows –

Licence Administration and Enforcement
Members’ Allowances & Expenses
Corporate Procurement – Compliance with McClelland Report

The report also outlined a range of planned and unplanned work currently being progressed which would be the subject of future reports to the Committee and the consequential effect on the Internal Audit Section to complete the Audit Tactical Plan for 2008/09.

It was confirmed that a range of audit subjects would be deleted from the present Audit Tactical Plan but would all be considered for inclusion in the Tactical Plan for 2009/10. In addition, Audit Scotland had proposed to carry out Audit reviews in relation to two of the deleted subjects, namely: Corporate Business Continuity Planning and Housing and Property Asset Management.

The Committee NOTED the terms of the report as circulated and the adjustments to the Tactical Plan for 2008/09 and that the audit subjects to be deleted from the present Audit Tactical Plan would all be considered for inclusion in the Tactical Plan for 2009/10.

4. External Audit Reviews

There had been circulated Report No. AS-15-08 dated 29 May 2008 by the Depute Chief Executive and Director of Finance which contains reports from the Council’s External Auditors (Audit Scotland) as follows –

(a) Report on Highland Council Governance arrangements

During a summary of the report, it was confirmed that this exercise reviewed and reported upon the Council’s Corporate Governance arrangements as they related to the systems of internal control: the regularity of transactions; the prevention and detection of fraud and irregularity and standards of conduct and prevention and detection of corruption.

The main findings of the report were highlighted together with the associated Action Plan. Since the issue of the agenda it had been clarified that, in relation to collection of non-domestic rates, the Council’s system did in fact record the issue of “soft” reminders for the collection of arrears. While “soft” reminders did not form part of the statutory procedures for the recovery of arrears, this had improved income to the Council. A revised Report from Audit Scotland would, therefore, be issued to take this into account.

Following discussion, the Committee NOTED the terms of the report as circulated and that a revised Report from Audit Scotland would be issued to take into account amendments to the recording of “soft” reminders for the collection of non-domestic rates.

(b) Report on Electronic Personnel System (ICT) 2007/08

During a summary of the report, it was confirmed that the Council had been reporting the implementation of the personnel function of the ResourceLink system (the Council’s payroll/ personnel system) and that this report addressed the operational control over the personnel modules of the system.

The main findings of the report were highlighted together with the associated Action Plan.

During discussion, it was confirmed that some of the high priority action points had already been addressed and the remainder were presently being prioritised.

Following discussion, the Committee NOTED the terms of the report as circulated.

5. The Highland Council Pension Fund - Monitoring of Retirements

Declarations of Interest:

Mr J Gray and Mr A Torrance declared non-financial interests in relation to this item on the grounds of being Directors of Cromarty Firth Port Authority and, having applied the test outlined in Paragraph 5.18 of the Councillors’ Code of Conduct, concluded that their interest did not preclude their involvement in the discussion (and voting).

There had been circulated Report No. AS-16-08 dated 5 August 2008 by the Depute Chief Executive and Director of Finance which provided information relating to retirements from the Highland Council Pension Fund for the year ended 31 March 2008.

The report contained a summary of retirements together with comparisons from previous years.

The Committee NOTED the terms of the report.

6. Appointments to Scrutiny Planning Working Group

The Committee APPROVED revised membership of the Scrutiny Planning Working Group in accordance with the agreed formula (3:2:2:1), nominations having been tabled at the meeting:-

Scrutiny Planning Working Group