Agenda and minutes

In accordance with the Council’s Constitution, Members are asked to declare any personal or prejudicial interest they may have in any matter which is to be considered at this meeting.

None declared.

Agreed.

Following a request at the last meeting of the Audit Committee 28 April 2009, received a briefing note from the Head of Regeneration and Economic Development on the current S106 process.

The main features of the new process are:

• One officer is responsible for monitoring all S106 agreements;

• Case officer identifies application as requiring S106 agreement or unilateral undertaking and notifies S106 officer;

• Case officer ensures that standard paragraphs re payment of legal fees, and instructions that all payments come through the development S.106 Officer, are included in draft S.106;

• S.106 signed. Case officer places copy of agreement on file and ensures a copy is sent to Local Land Charges;

• S.106 officer updates list of legal agreements for web site and puts details of the agreement in the monitoring system. This will include money to be paid, timings of payments and Local Authority obligations on spend time;

• Cheque received by S.106 Officer. Date of receipt and amount noted on file, together with photocopy of cheque. Development Control manager notified of receipt;

• Write memo to relevant project officer and notify them that money received, where it is and any restrictions on spend. Provide copy of S.106 with memo for their records. Log on Uniform correspondence. Memo to request that project manager inform S.106 officer of any spend incurred.

• Regularly monitor S.106 accounts. Formally notify by memo project managers of any unspent money at least 1 year prior to time limit expiry (if any). Place on Uniform correspondence.

• When S.106 has been actioned and money spent. Transfer records to completed.

We have noted the process but require assurance that the Council has a clear policy on

  (i)  Who decides where and how S106 money is spent;

  (ii)  When S106 money is allocated it is spent on the purposes agreed; and

  (iii)  Require clear guidance from the Executive on how S106 is determined.

Following a request at the last PAASC meeting (22 June 2009) for an update on the Value for Money project, received a report from the Head of Community Cohesion and Equalities detailing progress of the work of the Value for Money Strategy Board (VfMSB).

The VfMSB is one of five sub-boards which reports to the One Barking and Dagenham Programme Board. The VfMSB is tasked with ‘driving transformational change in respect of value for money at Barking and Dagenham Council, so that the Council’s services significantly and increasingly demonstrate improved effectiveness and efficiency into the medium and long term, and that resources can be redirected to deliver the Council’s priorities’. 

The VfMSB work plan includes:

• Develop and implement a Value for Money vision and strategy for the Council;

• Detailed analysis and use of a baseline position to inform strategy;

• Identification of best practice and application in a B&D context;

• Identification of challenging, efficiency savings and targets, in support of the business planning process;

• Development and commissioning of tools and techniques to deliver VFM targets;

• Assurance that there is appropriate organisational capacity and resources to deliver VFM targets;

• Development and commissioning of mechanisms and processes for the organisation to manage VFM on an ongoing basis;

• Organisational development and capacity-building as appropriate across the organisation to embed VFM into the culture, ensuring capacity and capability to deliver savings and efficiencies into the future;

• Governance of VFM delivery;

• Development and monitoring of an implementation plan; and

• Provide challenge to the rest of the One B&D programme to ensure that VFM is being delivered by all other work streams.
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Current work in progress includes:

• Identification of the baseline position for the Council’s services in terms of price, performance, people and perceptions – for both individual and cross-cutting services; 

• Identification of benchmarks against which to compare the Council’s position to inform a prioritised programme for improvement;

• Review best practice elsewhere in the country and identify areas for improvement which are relevant for Barking and Dagenham;

• Establishment of detailed criteria for the setting of targets for efficiencies across the Council;

• Ensure a detailed programme of service reviews is delivered, targeted towards greatest areas of risk and where scope for significant efficiencies have been identified;

• Ensure an effective range of tools and techniques are made available to service managers to enable them to drive out efficiencies in their services;

• Review the procurement capability of the Council and ensure that action is taken to develop a more commercial approach to the procurement and management of contracts;

• Review of the strategic commissioning capability of the Council, in the context of the wider Partnership;

• As part of the Organisational Development strategy, ensure that the skills, capability, capacity and culture of the Council is developed to become one where everyone ‘treats every penny as if it were their own’;

• Development and implementation of an outsourcing strategy (including IT in the first instance); and

• Development and implementation of a strategy for income generation and maximisation of external funding.

We have  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

Following a request at the last Audit Committee meeting (28 April 2009) for an explanation of the high number of limited assurance Information Technology (IT) audits, received a report from the Head of ICT providing an update on progress made in addressing the issues raised.

The main areas which highlighted significant concerns about the adequacy of internal control systems are:

• Mobile Phones – procedures for control and monitoring of mobile phone usage were inadequate. It was unclear who held a mobile phone, how many were in proper usage and the extent of misuse;

• Network Infrastructure and Security- measuring and reporting the service level agreement response times and priority ratings, implementation of a corporate change control system, review of user accounts and suspension of user access rights for leavers;

• Telecommunications/VOIP – development of a formal telecommunications strategy, analysis of the resources required to manage the telecommunications environment, user management, development of a security policy, security incident management restriction on direct dialled calls;

• PC End User Controls and IT Security – security of IT equipment, controlling the access of visitors, encryption of data on mobile devices, locking of mobile devices, compiling of an IT replacement policy, stock procurement and control and disposal arrangements;

• Software Licensing – review of software management and licensing procedures, management of software inventories, storage of software and licenses, monitoring of software licensing, the reuse and transfer of software licenses and bulk license purchasing;

• IT Infrastructure Library Service Desk Audit – budget provision for the effective operation of the service desk, service desk capability, the internal integration of the service desk and service desk records reports are up to date and maintained; and

• Change Management Report – Process capability for change management, internal integration of change management, change records, level 4& 5 of ITL change management standards.

The Head of ICT confirmed that the following steps have been taken to address the issues raised

• Mobile phones- action plan devised which has tightened controls and monitoring of usage. Proactive fraud work where a number of staff have been disciplined for mobile phone misuse has also acted as a deterrent. ICT continue to audit reports from Orange and all mobile device contract end dates are reviewed to ensure they move over to the zero line rental tariff on the account anniversary. Heads of Service have been trained to run their own exception report from Oracle and are also notified by ICT of high usage throughout the year;

• Network Infrastructure - The majority of the issues raised have now been resolved a few however are dependant on the GCSX code of connection project which include Change Control, Security Patch Management, Domain Accounts /audit policy, User Rights and Privileges and Remote Access. Due to lack of funding the recommendation for considering a replacement policy for Cisco devices is on hold;

• Telecommunications / VOIP – The recommendations have not been fully implemented due to insufficient funding, the GCSX code of connections and the Accommodation Strategy;

• PC End User Controls & IT Security – Work is  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

Following a request at the last PAASC meeting (22 June 2009) for more information regarding the Compliance Working Group Action Plan and self assessment questionnaires, received a report from the Corporate Director of Resources providing these details.

The draft Annual Governance Statement 2008/09 flagged up a number of gaps in the Council’s governance arrangements. The Compliance Working Group consists of officers with lead responsibilities in areas of concern while the questionnaire had been sent to service heads to ask them about their compliance with the governance framework.

The key highlights of the Action Plan which address the main areas of concern are:

• Risk – Where some service heads are not updating the risk register – Contact services with issue on risk registers and agree plan of action;

• Procurement – Where some service heads are not consulting Procurement/Legal before commissioning – Contract Standing Orders are being reviewed and the requirement to consult Legal/Procurement will be made compulsory;

• Human Resources (HR) – Several services without up to date job descriptions – Job descriptions to be reviewed at annual and mid year appraisal with support of HR;

• HR Health and Safety – Some service areas not compliant with health and safety requirements – Services flagged as having health and safety concerns will be contacted and action plan agreed in accordance with rolling programme of health and safety reviews;

• Legal – Some areas not aware of data protection policy – Recruit a Data Protection Officer to review data protection policies and lead on program of compliance across the council;

• Partnerships – Limited formal governance arrangements in place for Local Strategic Partnership- Draft Governance Framework completed consultation with Partnership Board Chairs and lead officers;

• Internal Audit – Some services are without clear action plans to address control issues from Internal and External Audit – All recommendations arising from internal audit reports will be tracked by Policy Performance and Partnership (PPP) Teams in each department and reported to Department Management Teams at monthly performance sessions. Internal Audit will undertake risk based follow up work to confirm actions taken by management; and

• Policy and Performance – Lack of key performance indicators (KPI’s) in some service areas- Corporate Performance to liaise with GMPPP teams with a view to developing additional KPI’s where appropriate. 

We have noted the

  (i)  action plan to resolve gaps in the governance of the council; and

  (ii)  questionnaire issued to heads of service as part of the Annual Governance Statement evidence gathering exercise.

Received a report from the Corporate Director of Customer Services which provides an update on recommendations outstanding from the Highways Audit 2008/09.

The July 2008 Audit report identified five priority 2 recommendations requiring urgent attention relating to:

• Development of the procedures manual, signing matching and retention of work tickets;

• Monitoring of maintenance work and contractors;

• Monitoring of outstanding jobs;

• Use of the checklist for planned maintenance work; and

• Completion of daily activity sheets by Highways Inspectors and evidence that all the appropriate steps were being carried out.

The Head of Environment and Enforcement confirmed following on from the verbal update to the Audit Committee on 28 April 2009 that the action plan has been completed and outstanding recommendations implemented.

We have noted the report and accept the information provided by the Head of Environment and Enforcement. 

Received a report from the Divisional Director of Corporate Finance which provides an update on the Council’s progress in implementing the three outstanding recommendations from the ISA 260 (audit findings) report 2007/08.

The ISA260 deals with the auditor’s responsibility to communicate with those charged with governance in an audit of financial statements. It provides timely observations arising from the audit that are significant and relevant to their responsibility to oversee the financial reporting process.

PricewaterhouseCoopers 2007/08 ISA 260 audit report contained 20 recommendations of which 17 had been implemented and reported to the Audit Committee 28 April 2009.

The three outstanding recommendations which have now been completed and implemented are

• Un-reconciled cash balances – Accounts have been investigated and unclaimed amounts have been written back into the Council’s general reserves.

• Section 106 agreements – Regeneration finance have overhauled s106 working papers subject to being audited.

• Stock lending amounts exceeding authorised limits – This has now been resolved with the Investment Manager. 

We have noted the report.

Received a report from the external auditors the Audit commission setting out the proposed Annual Audit Fee charged for audit work for the 2009/10 financial year.

The fee

• is based on the risk based approach to audit planning as set out in the Code of Audit Practice and work mandated by the Audit Commission for 2009/10; and

• reflects only the audit element of the work, excluding any inspection and assessment fees. Inspection fees will be sent separately by the Comprehensive Area Assessment Lead Officer.

As the year progresses the fees will be reviewed and updated as necessary. If any significant amendments need to be made to the fees during the course of the audit, these will first be discussed with the Corporate Director of Resources and a report will be prepared outlining the reasons why the fee needs to change for discussion with PAASC.

The total indicative fee for the

• Audit 2009/10 is £389,850 exclusive of VAT
• Pension Fund audit for 2009/10 is £38,500 exclusive of VAT.

The above fees exclude any work requested by the Council that the Audit Commission may agree to undertake using its advice and assistance powers and each piece of work will be separately negotiated with a detailed project specification agreed by the Council.

We have noted the report.