Internal Audit Update
Perth and Kinross Council · 25 March 2024
Back to Audit and Risk Committee — 25 March 2024 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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AUDIT & RISK COMMITTEE 25 MARCH 2024 INTERNAL AUDIT UPDATE Report by Chief Internal Auditor (Report No. 24/97) 1. PURPOSE 1.1 This report presents a summary of Internal Audit’s work undertaken as part of the Internal Audit Plans for 2022/23 and 2023/24. 2. RECOMMENDATION 2.1 It is recommended that the Committee notes progress with Internal Audit activity. 3. STRUCTURE OF REPORT 3.1 This report is structured over the following sections: • Section 4: Background • Section 5: Progress Update • Appendix 4. BACKGROUND 4.1 The Public Sector Internal Audit Standards (PSIAS) require that the Chief Internal Auditor reports periodically to the Audit Committee on internal audit activity and on performance relative to the approved plan. 4.2 Work has continued on assignments from Perth & Kinross Council’s Internal Audit Plans. In addition, work has continued to be undertaken in connection with the Internal Audit provision for Perth & Kinross’ Integration Joint Board. 4.3 Work has continued to support the 2022/23 National Fraud Initiative exercise, with supporting Services to conclude their investigations. Services have made good progress reviewing and investigating their matches, with the main areas outstanding being as a result of new matches in November 2023 for a number of datasets. Outcomes from this will be reported once all matched have been reviewed and investigations into all datasets have been completed. 5. PROGRESS UPDATE 5.1 Appendix 1 shows the status of audits arising from the Internal Audit Plans. 5.2 Internal Audit is currently involved with further areas of unplanned investigatory work. If any control issues arise as a result of these, reports will be presented to the Audit & Risk Committee.
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5.3 Internal Audit assignment 22-05, Community Engagement, had an indicative scope of “to review the effectiveness of arrangements in place for engaging with communities”. Community Empowerment and Engagement is the subject of a transformation and change workstream, which will provide recommendations to Council later in 2024 and is focused on future alignment of Council functions related to community engagement, and the future shape of local democratic forums. Internal Audit is content that the areas which would have been covered by an Internal Audit review have been included within the scope of the transformation review, with the changes recommended being implementation over the coming years. Any additional audit activity would therefore not add value at this time. As such, Internal Audit will consider the outcome of this transformation review, along with the outcomes from all transformation reviews, as part of its planning process for consideration for future Internal Audit plans. Authors Name Designation Contact Details Jackie Clark Chief Internal Auditor InternalAudit@pkc.gov.uk APPENDICES • Appendix 1 Internal Audit Activity