Agenda item

To consider and note the activity and performance of the Internal Audit function.

Members considered the Internal Audit Plan 202122 Progress report Q3 presented by Kathy Woodward.

Members made comments, asked questions, and received responses as follows:

• Councillor Benney thanked Katherine Woodward for the report. He noted that with all the business grants that had been administered there would be fraudulent claims from some businesses. He asked whether they were doing any work to track any fraudulent claims in Fenland down and how this was being undertaken if they were. Katherine Woodward informed the committee that they were working with BEIS on this issue and that they had requested examples of Fenland District Council’s work. She noted that they had done a lot of prepayment checks on businesses before administering the grants and that they had found no fraudulent cases yet. She explained that they had been able to fund a resource for several days this year to support them with this work. She noted that they had also worked with the National Fraud Initiative who had had supplied some data surrounding bank account details and whether businesses were trading to allow the Council to provide post payment assurance. She also noted that there had been 20 days put aside in the yearly audit plan for post payment assurance work to support the work on business grants. She explained that the post payment assurance work was ongoing and would come to the committee within the year end report. She informed the committee that there had been a few grants paid out in error but that none of these were fraudulent. Peter Catchpole noted that the Council had not been very high up on original Covid grant table in April 2020 which outlined the number of grants administered by Councils across the Country. He pointed out that this was now showing that they had taken the right stance in being vigilant with the checks before administering the grants and noted that it was showing the funds had gone out in the correct fashion.
• Councillor Benney noted that he was aware that they were slightly behind with the grant administration when the pandemic first hit and that it was good news that there had been no fraudulent claims especially with the amount of money that had passed through and the speed in which it had to be distributed. He thanked the team for their work. He also noted that some businesses had sent money back and commended those who turned it down due to being successful enough to manage without the grants.
• Councillor Wicks commended the internal audit team for the period that the report covered and noted that it contained a very positive set of achievements during a tumultuous time where a new template had to be created to deal with the exceptional circumstances.
• Councillor Hoy asked whether the housing standards data could be shared with the portfolio holders in future when they complete the reports as it was positive to see that there were no concerns despite the recent changes to the process. She noted that it would be useful to know what had been looked at and found in this area. She also asked who decided which processes were audited and enquired as to whether a process could be added as she felt that the collection of fines may need auditing to help understand the process and identify whether any changes could be made. Katherine Woodward noted that she would have a discussion with corporate management team about the possibility of providing the reports on housing standards to the portfolio holders. She explained that they used an audit plan to decide what was audited. She informed the committee that they worked to a five-year plan and that when individual services were audited they attempted to cover all elements. She explained that there was an ongoing audit around corporate debt which was looking at how the Council collected debts across the organisation and noted that there would be a report to the committee and that this would be fed through to all the relevant people to make any necessary changes. Peter Catchpole noted that the internal audit plan came before the committee for sign off. He informed the committee that if there were any areas in which they had concerns there were spare days within the internal audit plan which could be dedicated to examining certain processes where possible. Councillor Hoy thanked them for the information and noted that it was useful to know what had been audited.
• Mark Purser congratulated Katherine Woodward, Mark Saunders, Peter Catchpole and the rest of the team for their hard work during the difficulties of the pandemic. 

Members AGREED to note the activity and performance of the internal audit function.