Agenda and minutes
Venue: Conference Room 4B - Tŷ Hywel. View directions
Contact: Clerk: Kathryn Hughes Deputy Clerk: Buddug Saer
No. | Item |
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Introductions, apologies and declaration of interests Minutes: 1.0 Item
1 - Introductions, apologies and declarations of interest 1.1
The
Chair welcomed a number of attendees to the meeting. Apologies
from Suzy Davies. Andy Munro was present
as part of his External Quality Assurance Review of Internal Audit
and Clive Fitzgerald from TIAA was attending to present the Cyber
Security audit report. 1.2
Eric Gregory declared that
he was a Non-Executive Director on the Cabinet
Office Modern Electoral Registration Programme and a business
representative for the Parliamentary Review of Health and Social Care in
Wales. 1.3
Although
not necessarily seen as a conflict, Hugh Widdis wished to record that he was
employed by CGU in or around 1998-2000.
CGU later merged with Norwich Union and in due course became Aviva. 1.4
No other interests were declared. |
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Minutes of 21 November, actions and matters arising Minutes: 2.0 Item 2 - Minutes
and matters arising ACARAC
(01-17) Paper 1 - Minutes of 21 November 2016 ACARAC
(01-17) Paper 2 – Summary of actions 2.1
The minutes of the meeting on 21 November were agreed
and the updates on actions captured in paper 2, were noted. 2.2
Gareth
provided an update to action (paragraph 2.3) feedback
to the Committee on the outcome of the Governance and Audit team away day. An
afternoon session had recently been convened to review the actions set during
the session in May 2016. A number of positive themes had emerged
from these sessions in terms of proactive cross-team and cross-Commission
working. A Governance learning module was also being developed for training
purposes as part of a Commission Manager Programme. Gareth agreed to share a detailed update with
the Committee. 2.3
Eric
confirmed that the WAO had recently circulated information relating to action
point (paragraph 6.4) circulate
details of effectiveness surveys from the WAO Chairs of Audit Forum.
Further information would be shared in October provided other committees
shared this with the WAO, as we had already done. 2.4
Claire Clancy briefed the Committee on the name
change consultation (action point 10.4).
The Consultation would run until the beginning of March and of the 1,721
responses received to date, 65-70% agree or strongly agree that the National
Assembly for Wales should change its name. 2.5 Claire
also updated the Committee on the Assembly’s Expert Panel on Electoral Reform
which was launched on 1 February and would be meeting for the first time on 14
February. 2.6
The Chair welcomed the recent circulation of the
Corporate Key Performance Indicator report.
Officials agreed to review the use of 100% target ratings and the
omission of any reference to key projects and programmes. 2.7
Claire informed the Committee that the Investment
and Resourcing Board (IRB) were now receiving regular project and programme
activity updates from Directors. Updates
on major projects are provided regularly to the Assembly Commission. Action -
Gareth
to circulate update on positive changes to the team. |
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Internal Audit Activity Report Minutes: Internal Audit 3.0
Item
3 – Internal Audit Activity Report ACARAC (01-17) Paper 3 – IA progress report ACARAC (01-17) Paper 4 – IA Monitoring Recommendations 3.1
The Committee welcomed Gareth’s progress report and monitoring
documents. A Payroll audit had commenced
and the final report would be circulated out of committee, as would the IRB
review. 3.2
Gareth was scheduled to audit the payments made to Assembly
Members (AMs) in terms of resettlement grants, redundancy payments to AM
Support Staff, and setting up regional and constituency offices of new AMs
following the Fifth Assembly elections. 3.3
Gareth advised that the contract for the co-sourced Internal Audit
arrangements would be awarded in June 2017.
3.4
After some discussion on the scope and sample sizes of the
specific audits that Gareth was about to undertake, the Committee suggested
that he consider how best to report the outcomes and benefits to the Commission
of his audit reports, as well as recommendations that had been rejected by
Management. Actions -
Gareth
to circulate recommendations and actions from the review of IRB after
consideration by IRB. -
Gareth to capture the
outcomes of recommendations made by audit reviews in future reports. -
Gareth
to include in IA reports recommendations that are not accepted by Management,
and the reasons for this. |
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Latest Internal Audit reports Minutes: 4.0 Item 4 – Latest
Internal Audit Report ACARAC
(01-17) Paper 5 – Cyber Security 4.1
The
Cyber Security audit resulted in a ‘needs improvement’ rating. This was
due to the amount of work which was still in progress to improve the Assembly Commission’s
arrangements for cyber security. 12
recommendations had been raised to enhance the current arrangement but none of
these were High/Critical priority. 4.2
The
Chair felt that this was a thorough report and that the Commission was
well-sighted on quickly delivering the recommendations. He agreed with the Commission’s rejection of
one of the recommendations. 4.3
Dave
described the work that was taking place on a UK-wide level and confirmed all
12 recommendations would be complete by the end of the 2016-17 financial
year. The appointment of a cyber
security network specialist within the ICT team would further strengthen this
area, although he recognised the challenges facing the organisation and the
importance of raising awareness with Commission staff, AMs and support
staff. Gareth would follow up on the
ISO27001:2013 review and continue to meet on a regular basis with the Head of
ICT before performing a follow up audit and updating the Committee when
appropriate. 4.4
Dave
confirmed that cyber security was about to be added to the Commission’s
Corporate Risk Register and the Committee questioned whether bringing the ICT
function in-house had highlighted historic failings in the security of the
network. Dave confirmed that the
transition to in-house ICT services had exposed some vulnerabilities with the
outsourced arrangement but the control gained by bringing the services in-house
had improved the situation. |
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Update from WAO Minutes: External Audit 5.0 Item 5 – Update from
WAO ACARAC
(01-17) Paper 6 – update paper 5.1
Ann-Marie
Harkin and Matthew Coe confirmed that the outstanding recommendation in the
2015-16 Management Letter had been resolved.
The interim audit had not identified any issues as yet. 5.2
The
2016-17 audit fees were discussed and the WAO agreed to inform the Committee
following their internal moderation process.
The audit team have recommended a fee reduction due to the quality of the
accounts and the assistance provided by the Commission. 5.3
The
Chair queried the WAO’s scoring of the annual report in the comparison exercise
they had carried out with other public sector organisations. In his view, several criteria were not
applicable and the Commission’s overall rating should have been higher. 5.4
The
WAO agreed that the scoring matrix should have been thoroughly checked for
accuracy before being sent to Nia and that WAO communications on the purpose
and methodology of the exercise could be improved. Nia and the WAO will discuss the scoring and
share good practice outside of the meeting.
5.5
Whilst
the Committee welcomed the principles behind the comparison exercise, they
urged the WAO to ensure that future such exercises were carefully constructed
and communicated. Actions -
WAO
to share approved annual fee with ACARAC. -
Nia
Morgan and Ann-Marie Harkin to reassess scoring of Annual Report and highlight
areas for improvement and best practice. |
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Budget Update Minutes: Commission Governance 6.0 Item 6 – Budget
update Item 7 – Review
of accounting policies ACARAC
(01-17) Paper 7 – Finance and Budget Update ACARAC
(01-17) Paper 8 - Accounting policies – annual review 6.1
Nia
Morgan presented both of these items.
The 2016-17 corporate financial targets had been reviewed and updated at
a recent IRB meeting. The target
underspend for the year-end had been revised from 1.0% to 0.5% and prompt
payment targets further tightened. Nia
also informed the Committee of some staff changes within the Finance team. 6.2
The
revised underspend position of below 0.5% would be challenging but at a recent
Management Board meeting Nia had emphasised to Heads of Service that the
remaining weeks of the current financial year were a critical time for the
management of the budgets in their service areas. The Committee highlighted the
potential for such a target to increase the risk of overspend. 6.3
The
Committee welcomed the annual review of accounting policies and thanked Nia for
such a comprehensive paper. |
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Review of Accounting policies |
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Update on replacement Finance system project Minutes: 7.0 Item 8 – Update
on replacement Finance system project ACARAC
(01-17) Paper 9 – Finance project update 7.1
The Chair
thanked Keith Baldwin for his role as a ‘critical friend’ on the replacement
finance system project and encouraged officials to use committee members’
expertise on projects and other tasks in future. He also encouraged the project team to ensure
the system was fully embedded into the organisation before a post
implementation review took place. 7.2
Keith’s
paper described the encouraging and positive meetings with the project team and
project board. Everyone involved had
been enthusiastic about the system and Keith would share his comments on the
go-live criteria with the project team. 7.3
The
Committee recognised that all of Keith’s recommendations reflected good
practice and should be accepted by the project team. 7.4
The
Committee questioned the re-phasing and timetable of the project. Eve Jennings welcomed the recommendations in
the paper and advised that the phasing of the project had been driven by the
supplier. Data migration had been
extremely smooth and the project team were confident that the go live date of 3
April remained achievable. Actions -
Nia to provide an oral update on progress
at the March meeting. -
Keith to provide the project team
with his comments on go-live criteria. |
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Corporate Risk Report Minutes: 8.0 Item
9 - Corporate Risks Report ACARAC
(01-17) Paper 10 - Corporate Risks ACARAC
(01-17) Paper 10 – Annex A - Corporate Risks Summary Report ACARAC
(01-17) Paper 10 – Annex B - Corporate Risks plotted 8.1
The Committee
noted the changes to be made to the Corporate Risk Register following the
latest full review by Management Board on 2 February. A revised register would be presented to the
Management Board at its 2 March meeting where they would also consider further
changes. |
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Critical examination of one identified risk - proposals to investigate additional accommodation Minutes: 9.0 Item 10 - Critical examination of
one identified risk – Proposals to investigate additional accommodation ACARAC (01-17) Paper 11 – Additional Accommodation 9.1
Dave led
a discussion on the on-going work around assessing the Assembly’s current and future
accommodation needs, the timescales involved and the specialist advisors who
have been involved in the various options being considered. 9.2
The
Committee urged officials to fully document and evidence the steps taken to
determine the additional accommodation needs and the potential options for the
future, in order to reassure stakeholders.
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Constitutional Landscape- Wales Governance Centre Minutes: 10.0 Item
11 – Constitutional Landscape – Wales Governance Centre Presentation 10.1
The
Committee welcomed Professor Roger Scully from the Wales Governance Centre to
deliver his presentation titled Constitutional
Landscape. Future legal competence,
the capacity of the Assembly and Brexit were the main themes of his
presentation. 10.2
The
Committee thanked Roger Scully for his time and his clear explanations of these
complex topics and their interdependencies.
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Discuss preparation of the Committee's annual report to the Commission and Accounting Officer Minutes: 11.0 Item
12 – Discuss issues in preparation of the Committee's annual report
to the Commission and Accounting Officer ACARAC
(01-17) Paper 12 – Annual Report 2015-16 Item 13 – Review of the committee's
terms of reference ACARAC
(01-17) Paper 13 – Terms of Reference Item 14 – Departures Summary ACARAC
(01-17) Paper 14– Departures Summary Item 15 – Forward Work
Programme ACARAC
(01-17) Paper 15– Forward Work Programme Item
16 – Present feedback from observer from attendance at
Audit Committee meetings Oral
item 11.1
The Chair
encouraged members to consider areas they would like highlighted in the
Committee’s annual report. The Clerking
team would work with him to consider different presentation options. 11.2
The
Clerking team would make the suggested changes to the Terms of Reference. 11.3
Committee
members were asked to pass on comments on the Forward Work Programme to the
Clerking team and dates for future meetings would be updated once members had
confirmed their availability. 11.4
The
Chair agreed to share the feedback that he had received from Rheon Tomas who
had attended a series of Audit and Risk Assurance Committees. Actions -
Committee members to provide
Clerking team with ideas on areas to include in the ACARAC Annual Report for
2016-17 and how the overall presentation of the document could be more
engaging. -
Clerking team to add SIRO Annual
Report to ToR under information requirements. -
Provide comments to the Clerking
team on Forward Work Programme and confirm availability for future dates. -
Share Audit and Risk Assurance
Committee feedback from Rheon Tomas Next meeting is scheduled
for 20 March 2017. |
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Review the committee's Terms of Reference |
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Departures Summary |
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Forward Work Programme |