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:

·         22 recommendations had been included in table B  (recommendations completed since the last meeting of the Governance Committee on 8^th June 2021)

·         Table C detailed 12 recommendations for which time extensions were being requested. 

·         Table D detailed no outstanding recommendations.

·         The three recommendations detailed in Table E (Annual Governance Statement 2019/20) could not be completed until others had been finished. These concerned Business Continuity.

·         A finalised action plan, following the Peer Review, would be issued to Members in due course. The draft had already been circulated to all Members.

In response to questions from the Committee, The Chief Executive confirmed that:

·         The Audits on the outstanding list, for which extensions had been requested, had been thoroughly scrutinised by the SMT 

·         The list covered many pages but this was mainly due to the amount of additional detail now provided for each.

·         The new Management Team had been in place since October and those concerned were reassessing the ‘inherited’ audits and realised the importance of completing them promptly.

·         Those audits requiring extensions were justified and that 50% were for short extensions of one month. Of the remaining 6, the longest extension was to March 2022.

RESOLVED:

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

(b)          that the Heads of Service, for any Audit recommendations which were not progressed, following the time extensions given, would be invited to attend a future Committee; and

(c)          that the Audit Recommendation Tracker be noted.