Agenda item
Internal Audit Activity Report
- Meeting of Senedd Commission Audit and Risk Assurance Committee, Monday, 21 November 2016 10.30 (Item 3.)
- View the background to item 3.
Minutes:
Internal Audit
3.0
Item 3 – Internal Audit
Activity Report
ACARAC (05-16) Paper 3 – IA progress report
ACARAC (05-16)
Paper 4 – IA Monitoring Recommendations
3.1
Gareth introduced his usual progress update documents which described
the areas of focus during 2016-17. He also detailed his Continuous Professional
Development including attending an Intra Parliamentary Heads of Internal Audit
meeting and other networking opportunities such as meetings with Heads of
Internal Audit from other public sector organisations across Wales.
3.2
The Committee asked how Gareth would approach the re-tendering of
the Internal Audit contract, as the contract with TIAA was due to expire in
July 2017. Gareth proposed continuing
with a co-sourced arrangement, for which he would expect several tenders but
said he would also build resilience within the team with a view to carrying out
more in-house reviews.
3.3
The Chair thanked Gareth for his comprehensive
updates and reminded the Committee that Gareth relies on a co-sourced partner
to help him deliver the internal audit work. He also expressed his hope that
there would be strong competition for the procurement exercise.
3.4
Gareth then explained how he had scoped the audit of Assembly
Member expenses which would now be done in-house. He had discussed the audit with the WAO and
with Members’ Business Support, primarily to gain an understanding of their
work and the systems in place. His main
focus would be on the resettlement grant and the cost of office set up
following the election. The audit was on
track to report to the Committee in April.
3.5
In accordance with Public Sector Internal Audit Standards, on a
quinquennial basis the Head of Internal Audit is required to perform an
External Quality Assurance (EQA) Review.
At the recent Intra Parliamentary Forum meeting (17 November), Gareth
had mentioned the possibility of carrying out this review through reciprocal
arrangements with the other legislatures.
He had also taken advice on this from his counterpart in the Welsh
Government who was involved in setting the guidelines and standards for such
reviews.
3.6
The Committee questioned the impartiality and independence of such
an arrangement and Gareth explained it would be based on an initial
self-assessment with external validation by one of his counterparts. They
suggested that the standard review framework should be adapted to capture how
each of the legislatures work differently.
The reviewer should also be adequately qualified to perform the review.
3.7
Claire Clancy assured the Committee that assurance on the external
validation would be sought as appropriate.
3.8
The Committee questioned why the number of high priority
recommendations had fallen significantly over the past three years. Gareth suggested that it was dependent on the
subject matter and that in previous years there had been several audits with
numerous audit recommendations such as those on Recruitment, Security and the
HR-Payroll project. More recently subject areas audited had received more positive
audit opinions and hence fewer recommendations.
3.9
Dave Tosh added that work undertaken to embed governance and
compliance within the organisation had also resulted in fewer recommendations
and that the Governance and Audit team should be proud of their achievements in
this area. The Committee agreed with
this view.
Action
-
Gareth to circulate details, including the Terms of
Reference for the EQA to ACARAC members out of committee.