Issue - meetings

Report attached.

The Committee received a report on the work of the internal audit team during the period 4 April to 3 July 2016.  The main driver had been the launch of the one Source service transformation on 15 April, which had closed on 31 May, this had included the new partner Bexley. The new oneSource Assurance Service restructure had been completed in August.

Given the challenge of the restructure this was not yet fully populated with 4 positions vacant in audit and 3 in insurance.  These were being held pending the completion of the Finance transformation.

Following the restructure, it was considered that the number of days in the plan was ambitious and needed to be reviewed to reflect the actual position.

Based on the work undertaken since the last update to Members, no material issues had arisen which would impact on the previous opinion. No Nil or Limited Assurance reports had been issued, therefore the Head of Assurance had been able to conclude that a reasonable assurance opinion could be given that the internal control environment was operating adequately.

The Committee considered the list of Outstanding Audit recommendations and sought clarification on the outstanding recommendation from the 2012/13 review of transport. Officers would provide the information following the meeting.

Officers informed the Committee of the work of the Tenancy Fraud Project which was supported by the Lead Member for Housing. This had started last October and was scheduled to finish this October. As a result of its success the Lead Member was looking to continue the good work going forward.

The project had achieved net savings of £2.3m. Twenty-six Properties had been recovered and 23 Right to Buy applications had been stopped. The estimated savings was based on averages across England.

Officers were working with Media and Communications to arrange coverage of the project both locally and regionally. A letter would be sent to all tenants advising them of the work and an article would appear in the next edition of At the Heart.

Officers advised that there were three cases waiting to be passed to Legal Services for prosecution.

The Committee noted the report and congratulated officers on their good work.