Agenda and minutes

Venue: Vitrual Meeting

Contact: Maria Lugangira 020 8359 2761 Email: maria.lugangira@barnet.gov.uk  Please note that this will be held as a virtual meeting. An audio and video live stream of the meeting can be accessed on the link

Link: Click here for the meeting

Items
No. Item

1.

Minutes of last meeting pdf icon PDF 229 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting dated 19 October 2020 be agreed as a correct record.

 

2.

Absence of Members (If any)

Minutes:

None.

3.

Disclosure of Members' Pecuniary interests and Other interests (If any)

Minutes:

None.

4.

Report of the Monitoring Officer (If any)

Minutes:

 

None.

 

5.

Public Question and Comments (If any) pdf icon PDF 368 KB

Minutes:

 

Details of the public question asked and the response provided were published along the agenda papers for the meeting. There was no supplementary.

 

 

6.

Members' Items (If any)

Minutes:

None.

7.

Internal Audit Exception Recommendations Report and Q3 (Phase 2) Progress Report 1st October to 31st December 2020 pdf icon PDF 439 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Head of Internal Audit introduced the report which detailed the progress against the internal audit recommendations, work completed to date on the Internal Audit and Corporate Anti-Fraud Team (CAFT) Plan 2020-21 and the high and medium priority internal audit recommendations.

 

In Q3 the service completed 11 reviews and in total delivered 64% of the Audit Plan. She explained that although this was lower than the usual target for this time of year, which would be 75% at end of Q3) it should be viewed in the context of COVID-19.

 

There was one report issued with a ‘Limited’ Assurance rating in this period:

·       Land Charges – Review of Planning Data Controls and Policies

 

The Committee were asked to note that the audit did not review individual land charge searches in detail, so as such did not comment on the outputs of the Local Land Charges service and did not draw conclusions on the 23 quality or competency of the outputs. It is expected that a further review will be undertaken during 2021/22 over a sample of land charge searches which will review them in detail, providing assurance that the risks highlighted in this report have not materialised into issues.

 

Two high risk findings were identified as part of the audit:

 

  1. Inaccurate, incomplete, invalid and duplicate data held on the Uniform system

-        The audit found instances of inaccurate, incomplete, invalid and duplicated data within Uniform; the system used to process planning applications.

 

  1. Inefficient controls throughout the planning application and LLC process

-        The audit found multiple instances of undefined roles and responsibilities when processing data within Uniform where data ownership shifted between different parts of the business and it was not clear who was responsible for quality control at different points of the process.

 

The Operations Director, Re, responded to questions raised by the Committee on the Land Charges - Review of Planning Data Controls and Policies

 

RESOLVED –

1.     That the Committee note the work completed to date on Internal Audit Q3 progress report - 1st October to 31st December 2020.

 

8.

Corporate Anti-Fraud Team (CAFT) Q3 Progress Report 2020-21 pdf icon PDF 276 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Head of Counter Fraud and Enforcement Operations presented the report which provided an update of the work undertaken by the Corporate Anti-Fraud Team (CAFT) during the period 1st October to 31st December 2020.

 

RESOLVED –

 

1.     That the Committee note the CAFT Progress Report covering the period 1st October – 31st December 2020

 

9.

Final External Auditor's Report for the year 2019/20 pdf icon PDF 392 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Leigh Lloyd-Thomas from BDO, External Auditor presented the report which provided the outcome of the external audit of the Council’s Statement of Accounts undertaken by BDO LLP. The findings were reported in the final Audit Completion Report at Appendix A.

 

 

RESOLVED –

 

1.     That the Committee note the Statement of Accounts for 2019/20 and Summary of changes listed in appendix B.

2.     That the matters raised by the external auditor relating to detailed aspects of the 2019/20 accounts audit be noted.

3.     That the Committee note the government’s response to the main recommendations from the Redmond review.

 

 

 

10.

Committee Forward Work Programme pdf icon PDF 261 KB

Minutes:

The Committee noted the Forward Work Programme.

 

11.

Any item(s) the Chairman decides are urgent

Minutes:

None.