Issue - meetings

Report of the Head of Audit & Risk Management.

The Board considered a report of the Head of Audit & Risk Management providing Members with an update in respect of Internal Audit activity related to the Barbican Centre since its last meeting.

RESOLVED - That Members:-

·         Note the report;

·         Consider the appropriateness of the delays in high priority recommendations implementation;

·         Provide input to high level audit planning proposals for 2021-22 by suggesting potential areas of coverage.

Report of the Head of Audit & Risk Management.

The Committee considered a report of the Head of Audit & Risk Management providing Members with an update in respect of Internal Audit activity related to the Barbican Centre since the November meeting of this Committee.

Members were informed that the review of the Centre’s Bars had been completed; however, the recommendations from that review would be delayed in the absence of trading as a result of the current national lockdown.

The security audit was signed off and due to be implemented imminently. It was highlighted that this was given an amber assurance rating purely in light of the seriousness of the risks being addressed.

A summary of the 2021 Audit Plan for the year was presented to Members and it was noted that the planned Health and Safety Review would now likely be delayed until next year. The Head of Audit & Risk Management confirmed that other assurance sources could be used to measure health and safety concerns in the meantime.

A typo was noted in paragraph 12 of the report whereby the wrong year was listed and should say 2021/22.

With regards to audit recommendations, Members were advised that recommendation 3 concerning corporate sponsorship had been implemented and two follow-ups were undertaken.

In response to a query concerning Barbican retail systems, Members were informed that all recommendations were audited and approved prior to the last meeting and the systems were now completely compliant.

A Member felt it was important that the Committee gave Management a clear steer that dealing with Covid related risks were the priority and closing minor risks was not urgent and could be delayed until 2022. Members supported this sentiment.

RESOLVED - That Members:-

·         Note the report;

·         Consider the appropriateness of the delays in high priority recommendations implementation;

·         Provide input to high level audit planning proposals for

Report of the Head of Audit & Risk Management.

The Board considered a report of the Head of Audit & Risk Management providing Members with an update in respect of Internal Audit activity related to the Barbican Centre, the last written submission having been made to the January 2020 meeting of the Barbican Risk Committee.

RESOLVE - That Members:-

·         Note the report;

·         Consider the appropriateness of the delays in high priority recommendations implementation.

Report of the Head of Audit & Risk Management.

The Committee considered a report of the Head of Audit & Risk Management providing Members with an update in respect of Internal Audit activity related to the Barbican Centre, the last written submission having been made to the January 2020 meeting of the Barbican Risk Committee.

Members were informed that the Audit Plan delivery had been completed for 2019-20 and is progressing in respect of 2020-21. As of mid-October 2020, there were no live red priority recommendations and seven live amber priority recommendations which exceeded their original target dates for implementation. Revised target dates were supplied for these recommendations due to slippage in implementation timescales. 

The Head of Audit & Risk Management confirmed that there had been good progress since the implementation of the new audit system and Officers were confident that the Centre’s audit plan would be delivered. The new approach, which included the issuing of new reporting, had seen better dialogue with Senior Management and it was hoped this would help with finalising some older recommendations that were overdue past their original completion dates. Members were asked if March 2021 was an appropriate date to finalise these outstanding recommendations.

A Member was pleased to note improvements concerning bars and retail, with most recommendations largely resolved, and queried how these were being managed and followed up. Officers confirmed the audits were recently completed and would be revisited as per the targets. It was noted that follow up was generally one month after the scheduled implementation date and that timescales could be included on future reports with a follow up column providing scheduled dates.

A Member enquired if internal audit had looked at changes in process and approval of financial transactions as a result of Covid. Members were advised that this was mostly unchanged except for the ability of some committees