Decision details

The Committee considered the Audit Recommendation Tracker report by the Chief Executive in respect of actions taken to address internal and external audit recommendations (circulated previously).

The Committee noted the following updates:

·       Table B detailed the actions that had been completed since the last meeting of the Committee.

·       Table C detailed the outstanding recommendations together with Management requests for extensions to due dates.

·       Table E contained information related to the Annual Governance Statement together with actions recently completed and some revised dates.

In response to a question regarding the reasons for requested extensions, the Director of Resources and Deputy Chief Executive advised that in light of recent events with the passing of Her Majesty the Queen and other areas of work that Government had asked the Council to prioritise help for such as supporting the ongoing refugee situation, that officers had been reassigned to other priority areas of work that were more pressing and so were unable to meet the current target deadlines within the report and thus why short extensions were now being requested.

The Committee agreed that when requesting extensions to deadlines that Managers should be realistic in their estimation of when an action was likely to be completed and if a longer extension was required then to request it rather that continually extending the deadlines at each meeting.

The Committee thanked the Housing Service for their efficiency in delivering a prompt response to the refugee situation and providing the necessary support.

The Internal Auditor suggested that the report be revised to include a traffic light system to make it easier for the Committee to interpret the urgency of each action.

RESOLVED:

(a)  that the time extensions requested in the Audit Recommendation Tracker be approved; and

(b) that the Audit Recommendation Tracker be noted.