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: 1.1
The
Committee noted apologies from Suzy Davies and Ann-Marie Harkin. They welcomed
a new representative from the Wales Audit Office, Gareth Lucey and wished
Matthew Coe the best of luck on his forthcoming secondment. The Chair asked for
responses to the comments from Suzy Davies on the papers to be appended to the
minutes. 1.2
Eric Gregory declared that he was the business
representative for the Parliamentary Review of Health and Social Care in
Wales. 1.3
No other interests were declared. |
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Minutes of 18 July, actions and matters arising Minutes: ACARAC
(05-17) Paper 1 - Minutes of 18 July 2017 ACARAC
(05-17) Paper 2 – Summary of actions 2.1
The minutes of the meeting on 18 July were agreed and the updates
on actions captured in paper 2 were noted.
2.2
Action points 4.4 and 12.2 (project
prioritisation) – Dave Tosh confirmed that a paper detailing the prioritisation criteria was presented at
Investment and Resources Board (IRB) in June. Applying the criteria would be
tested by IRB in December 2017. 2.3
Action points 4.7 and 4.9 (Auditor General for Wales (AGW) Salary and
Consolidated Fund) – Nia Morgan and Gareth Watts met with Welsh Government
representatives over the summer recess to discuss the treatment of payments for
the AGW. They were both assured that
proper processes were in place for the next AGW appointment and were awaiting
an update before the end of the year. Actions -
Gareth to
update Committee on Welsh Government process for appointment and payment of AGW
once information was received. |
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Capacity review Minutes: ACARAC
(05-17) Paper 3 – Capacity Review Supporting Analysis ACARAC
(05-17) Paper 3 – Annex A – Terms of Reference for Capacity Review 3.1
Gareth Watts and Phil Turner presented an overview of
the Capacity Review where they shared the Review’s objectives and some initial
findings. 3.2
The Committee provided some welcome challenge and
useful pointers which would be taken on board in preparation for presenting the
Review’s findings to the Assembly Commission in January. 3.3
The Committee suggested the report should clarify
that the Commission were starting from a strong base regarding the quality and
due diligence of their work, and should maintain that whilst raising
efficiency, they should provide practical examples here (e.g. more robust
scrutiny of resource requests). They also stressed the importance of using both
qualitative and quantitative data in the final report to demonstrate further
potential efficiencies whilst maintaining effectiveness. 3.4
Gareth and Phil welcomed the opportunity for this
critical challenge and hoped the Committee could provide further assistance if
timing allowed. Actions -
Gareth Watts to share updated supporting analysis paper with the
Committee when available. -
Independent
Advisers to be involved in progressing the capacity review as appropriate. |
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Internal Audit Activity Report Minutes: ACARAC (05-17) Paper 4 – IA progress report and monitoring
recommendations 4.1
Gareth presented his activity report and update on
recommendations. The Capacity Review was
consuming much of Gareth’s time and changes to his 2017-18 audit plan may be
necessary as a result. The Committee
noted the plan to defer the audit on change management. monitoring recommendations 4.2
Gareth presented his activity report and update on
recommendations. The Capacity Review was
consuming much of Gareth’s time and changes to his 2017-18 audit plan may be
necessary as a result. The Committee
noted the plan to defer the audit on change management. |
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Latest Internal Audit Report Minutes: ACARAC
(05-17) Paper 5 – New Finance System Controls Reports/updates circulated out of committee ACARAC (05-17) Paper 6 – Review of Committee
Integrated Teams ACARAC
(05-17) Paper 7 – Internal Audit Recommendations – MBS Follow up report ACARAC
(05-17) Paper 8 – Fraud Prevention and Detection 5.1
All
four audit reports were noted and Gareth had responded to the points raised by
the Committee on the pre-circulated reports. The Committee were very impressed
with the turnaround of the recommendations in the report on the Finance System
Controls. 5.2
Nia
was bitterly disappointed with the Limited Assurance rating, especially when
compared to the Strong rating given last time. She assured the Committee that
this was not a reflection of her team or the new system in place and there had
been no deterioration in services. Recommendations
concerning the documenting of tasks had been tightened, as had the process of
monitoring the time taken to approve credit card purchases. Nia would now see a list of outstanding
actions on a monthly basis to ensure the level never rose to that identified by
the audit. An exercise to review the
usage and number of credit cards was scheduled for December. 5.3
The
Committee also noted and discussed the responses to recommendations in the
Review of Committee Integrated Teams, in particular the acceptance and
timeliness of their implementation. |
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Review HMT/other guidance for Audit and Risk Assurance Committees Minutes: Oral
update ACARAC
(05-17) Paper 9 – NAO Guidance – Cyber and Information Security 6.1
Dave
provided an update on cyber and information security activity and future
plans. There was currently a focus on
raising awareness with Assembly Member Support Staff (AMSS) at Constituency
Offices. Mock phishing exercises on
Assembly Commission staff had proved positive in highlighting vulnerabilities
and the sharing of information between external organisations that Dave and his
colleagues were in contact with was also proving useful. Further information on testing and recovery
procedures was also discussed but due to the nature of the discussion, detail
minutes were not taken. Actions -
Dave to share details of existing
vulnerabilities and resolution plan with Committee members. |
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Update on Policy Management Framework Minutes: ACARAC (05-17) Paper 10 – Policy Management
Framework 7.1
Gareth presented this paper asking the Committee to
note the work being undertaken and the proposed next steps. When complete, the policies would all be
branded and have clear review dates which was seen as essential in terms of
good governance. 7.2
Although the Committee questioned the timing of
this work, Gareth assured members that this project was identified in 2014 and
was not starting from scratch. The
impact on resource was low and was being managed by a member of the Governance and
Assurance team. |
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Finance Update Minutes: ACARAC
(05-17) Paper 11 – Finance Update 8.1
Nia asked the Committee to note the update which
detailed the latest financial position for 2017-18 which was monitored by IRB
on a fortnightly basis. 8.2
The Committee welcomed this comprehensive paper and
appreciated the financial pressures the organisation was facing. Actions -
Nia to share details of budget
modelling with Committee members. |
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Summary of Scrutiny Sessions (Finance and Public Accounts Committee) Minutes: ACARAC
(05-17) Paper 12 – Finance Committee and Public Accounts Committee Update ACARAC
(05-17) Paper 12 – Appendix 1 FC report ACARAC
(05-17) Paper 12 – Appendix 2 Response to FC report 9.1
Nia and Manon Antoniazzi thanked the Committee for their extremely valuable
input in their preparation for the scrutiny sessions held in October. Following these sessions, a number of
recommendations had been suggested by the Finance Committee and the Assembly
Commission had formally responded. The
budget for 2018-19 was approved in Plenary on 15 November 2017 and Nia
confirmed that she would be considering how the Determination on Members’ Pay
and Allowances was treated in other legislatures. 9.2
The Committee praised Manon for her performance at
the sessions, especially considering this was her first as Chief Executive and
Clerk, and Accounting Officer. They also
welcomed the offer of an update on the building proposals once the Commission
had made its decision in the New Year. |
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Approve the Committee's effectiveness survey Minutes: ACARAC
(05-17) Paper 13 – Committee’s Effectiveness Survey ACARAC
(05-17) Paper 13 – Annex A - Effectiveness Survey Questionnaire 10.1 The
Committee agreed to the questions contained within the survey which would be
circulated in December. After some
internal analysis, the results would be presented to the Committee in
February. Actions -
Committee members and attendees to
complete the ACARAC effectiveness survey by 5 January 2018. |
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Corporate Risk Report Minutes: ACARAC
(05-17) Paper 14 – Corporate Risks ACARAC
(05-17) Paper 14 – Annex A - Corporate Risks Summary Report ACARAC
(05-17) Paper 14 – Annex B - Corporate Risks plotted Item 12 – Critical examination
of one identified or emerging risk ACARAC
(05-17) Paper 15 – Managing the Commission’s Inter-related Corporate Risks ACARAC
(05-17) Paper 15 – Annex A - inter-related risks and common mitigation 11.1 The
Committee welcomed Anna Daniel, who had been involved in the drafting of the
paper on the inter-related risks. 11.2 The
Committee noted the current status of the Commission’s corporate risks and
analysis of how the combined impact of the inter-related risks were being
managed. Dave described how the Capacity
Review work was driving the focus of the inter-related risks. He also explained that, despite the strength
of the controls in place, the impact ratings on most of the risks remained high
and a number of events were beyond the Commission’s control, for example
Assembly reform and Brexit. 11.3 Anna
described the scenario planning for Brexit and the training scheduled for
Assembly Members and AMSS prior to the new powers under the Wales Act coming
into force in April 2018. 11.4 The Chair
welcomed this level of analysis which he had rarely seen elsewhere, and
appreciated the complexity of the risk landscape and the limited control the
organisation had in some areas. |
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Critical examination of one identified or emerging risk Minutes: 12.0 See above. |
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Updates from WAO Minutes: ACARAC
(05-17) Paper 16 – WAO audit update ACARAC
(05-17) Paper 17 – 2018 audit plan 13.1 Matthew
Coe presented an update document on the WAO’s work to date and the detail of
the 2018 audit plan. He assured the
Committee that there was no outstanding work from the 2016-17 audit and that a
detailed handover would take place with the new member of the audit team. 13.2 The
Committee welcomed both documents. They
queried why the audit fee was not yet ratified.
Matthew confirmed that this was still going through the internal
approval process and would be shared with the Committee as soon as it was
available. |
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Departure Summary Minutes: ACARAC
(05-17) Paper 18 – Departure Summary 14.1
The Committee noted four departures from normal procurement
procedure. |
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Draft Corporate Performance Report (KPI report) Minutes: ACARAC
(05-17) Paper 19 – KPI Report Apr-Sept 2017 15.1 The
Committee noted this draft KPI report that was due to be reviewed by the
Assembly Commission in December. They
noted one area that had spiked significantly, which was Senedd.tv viewing
figures. Dave and Manon explained the shift from viewers watching proceedings
on Senedd.tv to YouTube, which proved that users were preferring to access the
material using different social media channels.
15.2 Dave
explained that Heads of Service had been asked to review the KPI
sub-indicators, especially in light of the Capacity Review and the
recommendations made by the Finance Committee. |
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Forward Work Programme Minutes: ACARAC
(05-17) Paper 20 – Forward Work Programme 16.1 The
Committee noted the updated forward work programme. Next
meeting is scheduled for 5 February 2018. |