Venue: Committee Room 1 - Civic Centre, Swansea. View directions
Contact: Jeremy Parkhouse
No. | Item |
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Apologies for Absence. Minutes: Apologies for absence were
received from Councillors R Francis-Davies, P M Meara and R V Smith. |
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Disclosures of Personal and Prejudicial Interests from Members. PDF 30 KB Minutes: In accordance with the Code
of Conduct adopted by the City and County of Swansea, no interests were
declared. |
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To approve the Minutes of the
meeting of the Audit Committee held on 12 June 2014. Minutes: RESOLVED that
the Minutes of the meeting of the Audit Committee held on 12 June 2014 be
accepted as a correct record. |
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Coastal Project - Update Report. PDF 58 KB Minutes: The Chief Auditor presented a report which provided further information on the Coastal Project, in particular, the evaluation of the project by Wavehill. It was outlined that Wavehill were commissioned to provide an external evaluation
of the Coastal Project and their remit was to provide a formative evaluation
with a series of progress reports over the course of the project and a final
summary report at project closure. To
date, four reports have been produced and an extract of the second Wavehill report was provided at Appendix 2 of the report
showing relevant comments and recommendations.
Details of the involvement of WEFO were also outlined in the report. It was outlined that the Coastal Regional
Project Director had stated that the Corporate Director (Social Services) and
Head of Adult Services would have received a copy of the Wavehill
report. The Regional Project Director
also stated that he personally discussed the risk to funding with the Corporate
Director (Social Services) during regular informal meetings which were not minuted. It had also
been confirmed that the findings of the Wavehill
report were not escalated outside the Social Services Directorate. However, the Regional Project Director had
outlined a series of actions in response to the report’s findings and these
were provided within the report. It was concluded that the
fundamental question arising from the original investigation was whether the
risk to funding imposed by WEFO in August 2013 could have been identified
sooner. The Wavehill
report shows that the risk was identified in October 2011 but that no action
was taken to escalate this risk outside of the Social Services Directorate
until August 2013, in response to WEFO changing the terms and conditions of the
grant. A detailed and frank discussion
followed and Members asked a number of questions of the Chief Social Services
Officer and the Coastal Regional Project Director who responded
accordingly. RESOLVED that (1) the
contents of the report be noted (2) a
copy of the final Wavehill evaluation report be
reported to the Audit Committee when available. |
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Draft Statement of Accounts 2013/14. PDF 26 KB Additional documents: Minutes: The Section 151 Officer presented the Draft Statement of Accounts for 2013/14 for information and review. It was outlined that the Draft Accounts had been prepared and signed by the Section 151 Officer on 30 June 2014 and a copy was provided at Appendix A to the report. The Accounts had been formally presented to the Council’s Auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers, who had commenced the audit of the Accounts. As part of the audit process, the Accounts will be made available for inspection by the public for a four week period during August and September 2014. It was outlined that the form and content of the Accounts was largely set out in the CIPFA Code of Practice which forms the basis of best practice in accordance with legislation. Legislation requires that by 30 September 2014 the Accounts must be audited and approved by Council. The Committee asked a number of questions of the Section 151 Officer who responded accordingly and agreed to provide a written response to a question regarding corporate and democratic core. The PricewaterhouseCoopers Representative explained that a verbal update regarding the progress of the audit of the accounts will be provided at the next meeting. RESOLVED that the Draft Statement of Accounts be noted. |
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Draft Annual Governance Statement 2013/14. PDF 106 KB Minutes: The Chief Auditor
presented a report which provided the Draft Annual Governance Statement
2013/14. It was outlined that the Annual
Governance Statement should report publicly on the extent to which the Council
had complied with its own Code of Governance on an annual basis, including how
it had monitored and evaluated the effectiveness of the governance arrangements
in the year and on any planned changes in the coming period. The process of preparing the Annual Governance
Statement should itself add value to the effectiveness of the Corporate
Governance and Internal Control Framework.
The Draft Annual
Governance Statement 2013/14 was provided at Appendix 1 of the report and had
been subject to consultation with the Executive Board. The final version of the Annual Governance
Statement would be reported to Cabinet in September 2014 for approval before
being signed by the Chief Executive and Leader and published with the Audited
Statement of Accounts 2013/14. The Committee asked a
number of questions of the Chief Auditor who responded accordingly. RESOLVED that: (1) the Draft Annual
Governance Statement 2013/14 be noted; (2) the Risk Management
Half Yearly Review 2014/15 be reported to the meeting scheduled for 30 October
2014. |
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Additional documents: Minutes: The Chief Auditor
presented the report which showed the audits finalised and any other work
undertaken by the Internal Audit Section during the period 1 January 2014 to 31
March 2014. It was outlined that a
total of 65 days were lost in quarter 4 due to vacancies. A total of 14 audits were finalised during
the quarter and these were provided at Appendix 1 which also provided the level
of assurance given at the end of the audit and a number of recommendations made
and agreed. A summary of the assurance
levels for each of audit finalised during quarter 4 was also provided. A total of 89 audit
recommendations were made and management agreed to implement all
recommendations made. Details of the
significant issues which led to YGG Tirdeunaw audit being considered to be moderate were provided
and it was added that there were other less significant findings also included
in the Final Audit Report issued to the Headteacher
and Chair of the Governing Body. A
Management Action Plan had been agreed with the Headteacher
which included a series of recommendations to address the issues provided. A follow-up audit would be arranged within 6
months of the Final Report being issued to confirm that the agreed
recommendations had been implemented. It was added that a
follow-up of the Social Services Debt Recovery Audit which had received a
moderate level of assurance was completed during quarter 4 and it was found
that substantial progress had been made in implementing the agreed
recommendations. Members asked
questions of the officer who responded accordingly. RESOLVED that (1) the contents of the report be noted. (2) the Chair writes to the Chief Education Officer to express the Committee’s concerns regarding the audit of YGG Tirdeunaw. |
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Audit Committee - Workplan. PDF 23 KB Minutes: The Audit Committee Work Plan
was provided for information. |
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Date of Next Meeting - Thursday, 4 September 2014. Minutes: NOTED that
the next meeting be scheduled for 4.00 p.m. on Thursday 4 September 2014. |