Agenda item

Internal Audit Update

Report fo the Chamberlain

Minutes:

The Sub-Committee received a report of the Chamberlain that provided Members with an update on the work of Internal Audit undertaken for the City of London Police since the last report in February 2018.

The Chamberlain explained that they were currently finalising the audit, with the Audit Plan being reviewed by the Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner.  He confirmed that he would feed back on progress in due course.

 

The Chairman noted that it was disappointing that a number of recommendations had still not been implemented and their target completion dates had been revised from March to September.  He asked that increased efforts be made to action these as soon as possible.  The Assistant Commissioner explained that a number of the outstanding recommendations were minimal, could be completed relatively easily and offered to provide further details of these if required outside the meeting.  A Member stated that they were glad of this.

 

A Member asked for an explanation of the Leavers’ Salary Overpayments recommendation highlighted within the report appendix 2.  The Assistant Commissioner explained that there had been a clerical error in which an email was missed, leading to accidental overpayments.  The Member noted that there were two instances of this and noted that this was very concerning.  The Chamberlain explained that they were now confident that the issue leading to the error in both cases had now been resolved.

 

A Member noted the number of recommendations relating to Police-seized goods.  The Chairman requested that the CoLP provide a brief update note on this to Members prior to the next meeting. (5)

 

The Chairman noted that Programme Management benefits realisation tracking was marked as a RED risk and asked for confirmation of when this would commence.  The Assistant Commissioner explained that work with consultants had been undertaken, with the system now ready to be briefed to the relevant staff.  He explained that it was just a case of implementing the procedures that were now in place.  He asked if a separate report on benefits realisation and tracking from the Force Change Portfolio board should be submitted to this sub-committee and the Chairman suggested that it simply be included as part of existing reports around the Demand and Value for Money/Transform Programme.

 

A Member asked the Head of Internal Audit and Risk Management what their perception of the current status of the CoLP’s audits were.  The Chairman noted that this would feed into discussion under Item 12 – Demand and Value for Money Review/Transform Programme Update.  The Chamberlain explained that there were a number of areas that remained RED risks, but the majority of work was around AMBER risks for which they were working closely with CoLP to resolve.  A second Member asked for a comparison with the status this time last year and the Head of Internal Audit and Risk Management explained that there had been a slight shift towards RED risks.  The Member asked if this would influence audit focus for next year and the Head of Internal Audit and Risk Management confirmed that it would.

 

The Chairman asked for an explanation of the fieldwork for the corporate wide audit as referenced in paragraph 5 of the covering report.  The Head of Internal Audit and Risk Management explained that this fieldwork was complete, and a draft audit report would be submitted to the next meeting. (6)

 

RESOLVED – That the report be received.

 

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