2. ARSB 170325 Outstanding Recommendations
Renfrewshire Council · 17 March 2025
Back to Audit, Risk and Scrutiny Board — 17 March 2025 and its agenda
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___________________________________________________________________ To: Audit, Risk and Scrutiny Board On: 17 March 2025 ___________________________________________________________________ Report by: Chief Auditor ___________________________________________________________________ Heading: Summary of Outstanding Internal Audit Recommendations ___________________________________________________________________ 1. Summary 1.1 The Chief Auditor presents this report annually to the Board to advise members of audit recommendations where agreed actions have not been effectively implemented by the date agreed. 1.2 This report, therefore, provides the updated position of those critical recommendations that have been followed up during 2024/25 and have not yet been fully implemented by service management. ___________________________________________________________________ 2. Recommendations 2.1 Members are invited to note the position with regard to these outstanding recommendations. ___________________________________________________________________ 3. Background 3.1 Internal Audit undertake an annual exercise to ensure that recommendations arising from internal audit engagements have been implemented by service management. The results of this exercise have been reported to service management on conclusion of the exercise and also to this Board as part of the Chief Auditor’s Annual Report. All critical recommendations which have been
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made and have reached their due date for implementation, by the date of commencement of this exercise, are included in this follow up exercise and services are asked to provide evidence to demonstrate that each of these recommendations have been implemented. 3.2 The table below shows the total and status of all critical recommendations which were followed up during this exercise across Council services. 8 of these have been implemented satisfactorily. No of Critical Recommendations Service Followed Up Completed Part completed Not Yet Implemented Redundant /superseded Childrens Services 4 2 0 2 0 Finance and Resources 4 3 0 0 1 Chief Executives 4 3 1 0 0 Environment, Housing & Infrastructure 6 4 0 2 0 Environment, Housing & Infrastructure/Finance & Resources 1 1 0 0 0 Totals 19 13 1 4 1 3.3 Revised implementation dates have been provided by senior service management for those recommendations which are not yet implemented or are partially complete at the time of the internal audit review. These recommendations are detailed in Appendix 1, along with the latest response received from service management. These will be followed up again by Internal Audit during 2025/26. ___________________________________________________________________ Implications of the Report 1. Financial - None 2. HR & Organisational Development - None 3. Community Planning – Safer and Stronger - effective internal audit is an important element of good corporate governance. 4. Legal - None 5. Property/Assets - None 6. Information Technology - None
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7. Equality & Human Rights – None 8. Health & Safety – None 9. Procurement - None 10. Risk – Non implementation of critical audit recommendations results in internal control weaknesses not being addressed 11. Privacy Impact – None 12. COSLA Implications – None 13. Climate Risk – None 14. Children’s Rights - None ________________________________________________________________ Author: Karen Campbell, Interim Chief Auditor – 0141 487 0678
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Appendix 1 Renfrewshire Council Internal Audit Service Audit, Risk and Scrutiny Board Progress of Outstanding Critical Recommendations Service Service Assignment Recommendation Original Due Date Status Management Response at Follow Up Exercise Revised Date Chief Executives Commercial and Industrial Rents Systems and resources should be put in place so that Arrears can be followed up timeously and in line with the current Rent Recovery Procedure, to issue warning letters to tenants and contact made with the tenant to attempt to agree a payment plan to recover the arrears. The processes for debt recovery should be reviewed. 01/06/24 Part Complete Efforts have been made to minimise debt. The new property assistant post will help to maintain a regular focus. Wider process with input from legal and finance colleagues to be considered as part of the Commercial property review. 31/03/25 Children’s Services Social Work Grants A checking process should be put in place to ensure the service user has acknowledged receipt of any monies/goods passed to them by their Social Worker and any receipts for goods purchased should be centrally retained at each Social Work Locality office. 30/06/24 Not Yet Implemented Work has not yet commenced on this aspect due to the notification from the Care Inspectorate of an inspection of Renfrewshire's services for children at risk of harm immediately following the publication of the internal audit report. 30/10/24
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Service Service Assignment Recommendation Original Due Date Status Management Response at Follow Up Exercise Revised Date The inspection process continues through to the end of September 2024. Work will commence on this recommendation at that point. In the interim, an email has been issued to all managers in relation to the applying for grants, dispersal of any funds received and use of work phones to disperse funds to users of our service. Wherever possible Section 22/17 payments should be made directly to the Service User via PayPoint or BACS. In the exceptional circumstances, when this is not possible, the payment should be made from petty cash to the Social Worker and signed for by that officer at point of handover. A receipt form should also be completed and signed by the Service User when the cash is given to them. This receipt should be returned to the Office and attached to the application. 30/04/24 Not Yet Implemented This action is outstanding due to the notification of the Children at Risk of Harm Inspection at the beginning of April and the need to concentrate on this. The direction note will be issued via managers in the next 10 days. 31/08/24
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Service Service Assignment Recommendation Original Due Date Status Management Response at Follow Up Exercise Revised Date Environment, Housing & Infrastructure Control and Recording of Assets Plant Fitters, should inform the Technical Officer when items of equipment are sent to external companies for repair and when they are returned. Inventory Removed from Establishment Forms (INV5) should be completed for repairs sent to external companies. The Fleetmaster system should be updated when items are sent for repair and when they are returned. 30/09/22 Not Yet Implemented We are in the process of rolling out the updated Fleet Management System, once in place this will be implemented. 30/06/25 Plant Fitters should inform the Technical Officer when items of equipment are uneconomical for repair. The Technical Officer should then add these to the lists of items to be disposed of at auction as they are of no further use. Inventory Deletion Forms (INV4) should be completed by the Technical Officer (as Establishment Responsible Officer) when items require to be disposed of. These should be signed by the Service Responsible Officer (and Head of Service for items valued between £1,000 and £40,000) and filed 30/09/22 Not Yet Implemented We are in the process of rolling out the updated Fleet Management System, once in place this will be implemented. 30/06/25
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Service Service Assignment Recommendation Original Due Date Status Management Response at Follow Up Exercise Revised Date chronologically within Fleet Management. Each disposal should be authorised by the Head of Establishment. The Fleetmaster system should be updated when items are sent for disposal and the relevant Team Leader informed so that it can be removed from their records.