Management summaries in respect of completed audit assignments
Appendix C (1)
Report No. NN/13/01 – Final Report issued 10 August 2012
Audit Report on Property Services and Coastal Protection
Audit Opinion
Adequate Assurance given
Rationale supporting award of opinion
The audit work carried out by Internal Audit indicated that:
•
While there is a basically sound system of internal control, there are weaknesses, which
put some of the client’s objectives at risk.
•
There is evidence that the level of non-compliance with some of the control processes
may put some of the client’s objectives at risk.
•
This opinion is reflective of
the five medium priority and two low priority
recommendations raised, including three medium and one low priority recommendations
relating to coastal protection
•
The level of assurance has not changed since the previous audit.
Summary of Findings
Property Services
The Council has an Asset Management Plan, which contains the strategy in place over the
Council’s property portfolio. This is supported by subsidiary policies such as the Disposal,
Investment and Acquisition Policy and the Community Asset Transfer Policy.
Key tasks and priorities are currently indentified and documented within a timetable. When the
Concerto system is introduced within the Valuations Service, which is scheduled by the end of
July 2012, tasks can be entered into the system’s timetable, which will produce reminders when
they require completion. Acquisitions and disposals are appraised in line with the Disposal,
Investment and Acquisition Policy.
We identified one acquisition where no documentation was available to confirm the reasoning
behind the acquisition or that approval for the acquisition had been obtained in line with laid down
policy.
New leases and lease renewals were found to have been appropriately authorised. However, we
noted that lease details had not been notified to other departments (e.g. Sundry Income, NNDR)
in a timely manner.
Properties are promptly re-let upon becoming vacant.
The Council offers concessionary rents or rent-free periods to tenants where works or repairs are
required on the property and are being paid for by the tenant. Rental deposits are considered by
the service on a case by case basis where the service considers it prudent to do so.
End of tenancy inspections are conducted. Depending upon the type of property or repair, any
identified repairs are either recharged to the tenant or paid for by the Council.
Condition surveys are undertaken on a five-year rolling programme, with results collated into a
spreadsheet from which maintenance issues are programmed. The 2012/13 maintenance
programme was not in place at the time of the audit, although was being redrawn as the original
draft had been lost due to file corruption. Assurance within the audit was gained from the
2011/12 survey records in so far as evidence of maintenance works required could be identified.
Commercial properties owned by the Council are insured through a policy with Zurich Municipal.
Property Valuation
Council properties are re-valued every five years. A schedule is in place to help ensure that all
properties are valued at least once within this period. Valuations have been undertaken by the
Estates and Valuation Manager and by Norfolk Property Services (NPS) for 2012/13. Valuation
Reports are received to provide assurance that valuations have been conducted and the asset
register is updated accordingly.
Performance Information
Performance targets are in place and are documented within the Asset Management Plan and
the Performance Management System (TEN). Performance had not been updated within TEN for
2012/13. Performance has been updated within the Asset Management Plan to December 2011.
Risk Management
Risks are documented within the Asset Management Plan and in TEN. The status of risks had
not been updated for 2012/13.
Coastal Protection
Key responsibilities are set down within the contract for the MTC. The Coastal Engineer has
been appointed as the Contract Administrator, with the Property Project and Programme
Manager having been appointed the Construction Design and Management Coordinator.
We ascertained the proposed contract monitoring arrangements during the audit. Contract
meetings are to be undertaken on a monthly basis as set down within the contract. The Council
intends to monitor health and safety and the general operation of works, however, monitoring
arrangements and mechanisms for doing so, including those for reporting outcomes of key
performance indicators (KPIs) listed in the contract, have not been formally documented within a
formal contract monitoring manual.
Contract variations are to be issued where individual works exceed £7,500, as detailed in the
contract, and are to be raised by the Coastal Engineer and authorised by the appropriate Head of
Service. However, there is confusion over this limit with supporting approval documentation
stating this limit is £7,000. Contract variations are however expected to be the exception rather
than the rule.
A payments process is set down within the contract. The contractor is to provide a day worksheet
stating the costs of labour, plant and materials, providing receipts for all materials used. These
will be checked and authorised by the Coastal Engineer in order to monitor costs.
The following number of recommendations has been raised:
Area of Scope
Adequacy
and
Effectiveness
Assessments
Adequacy
of
Controls
Effectiveness
of Controls
Recommendations
Raised
Property Services
Green
Amber
High
0
Property Valuation
Green
Green
0
0
0
Performance
Information
Green
Amber
0
1
0
Risk Management
Green
**Amber
0
0
0
Coastal Protection
Green
Amber
0
3
1
0
5
2
Total
**Recommendation raised within ‘Performance Information’.
High Priority Recommendations
No high priority recommendations have been raised as a result of this audit.
Management Responses
Management have accepted the recommendation raised.
Medium
1
Low
1
Appendix C (2)
Report No. NN/13/02 – Final Report issued 10 August 2012
Audit Report on Strategic Housing and Homelessness
Audit Opinion
Adequate Assurance given
Rationale supporting award of opinion
The audit work carried out by Internal Audit indicated that:
•
While there is a basically sound system of internal control, there are weaknesses, which
put some of the client’s objectives at risk.
•
There is evidence that the level of non-compliance with some of the control processes
may put some of the client’s objectives at risk.
•
This opinion results from the fact that we have raised one medium priority
recommendation. It is also based on the fact that all components of the Housing Strategy
have yet to be completed thus limiting our assessment of the overarching policies
governing this area.
•
The level of assurance has remained the same since the previous audit.
Summary of Findings
Homelessness
Assessments on homelessness applicants have been completed in 33 days, in line with the
Council’s Homelessness Policy and government legislation. Applications that are determined as
‘Full Duty’ are independently approved.
Homeless residents are housed within temporary accommodation where required, effectively in
bed and breakfast accommodation. Occupancy of temporary accommodation is monitored.
We established that not all lease agreements had been signed by the tenant to confirm
acceptance of repayment of accommodation rent and service charges.
Claims for housing benefits are made in a timely manner to cover rent costs. Invoices for rent are
received following occupancy, which typically cover the period of a week and are approved and
paid through the creditors system.
Monitoring of the prevention of homelessness is undertaken through the submission of statistics
via the P1E return to the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG).
Financial assistance is provided for rent deposits or advances.
The total outstanding debt for temporary accommodation charges as at 5th July 2012 amounted to
£50,862.30. This includes debts dating back to 2007. Recovery action is being pursued to
recover these outstanding payments, albeit with minimal repayments, due to the hardship of the
debtors.
The Council has introduced a new agreement for loan awarding and repayment to help to provide
a more secure basis for the recovery of assistance. As this is a new control, we were not able to
fully test its effectiveness. This will be reviewed in detail during the next audit undertaken on this
area.
Management of Housing Register
Applications are checked to help to confirm that only eligible applicants are present on the
Housing Register. All eligible applicants are provided with a banding. Applicants who are to be
assigned a Band One or Band Two rating are subject to approval by a senior officer.
Applicants are made aware of their housing options at the point of application and during any
subsequent contact whether in person or over the phone and this is supplemented through
newsletters and through information present on the Council’s website.
Access to the LOCATA system is restricted by password prompt with user restrictions applied to
each account.
Properties are let through shortlists. These are allocated through the LOCATA system by
Registered Social Landlords under the conditions of the Your Choice Your Home Policy and are
monitored by the Council.
Strategic Housing
The Council is producing a Housing Strategy. The strategy is to take the form of three
documents covering different aspects of the service. The Council has completed the strategy
document relating to Housing and Infrastructure. The document was approved by Cabinet on 11
June 2012 and by Full Council on 25 July 2012. The remaining two documents relate to the
Council’s approach to existing housing stock and the approach for supporting residents to live
independently.
Two service plans are in place for the Housing Service relating to Housing Needs and Housing
Enabling. Targets and activities for completion during the year and progress against these have
been included within the service plan and are due for completion.
Strategic action points included within the Housing Strategy Action Plan have yet to be
incorporated into the service plan within the Performance Management System (TEN). The Head
of Financial Services has confirmed that this will be actioned, following approval of the Housing
Strategy, as part of the corporate arrangements as confirmed in the audit of Corporate Policy,
Planning and Performance Management (NN/13/03).
Performance Information
Performance measures are in place for the service, which are reported through TEN.
Council has met performance targets during the previous 12 months.
The
Risk Management
Risks for Strategic Housing and Homelessness have been included within the service plan.
Mitigation plans are in place and have been monitored.
The following number of recommendations has been raised:
Area of Scope
Adequacy
and
Effectiveness
Assessments
Adequacy
of
Controls
Effectiveness
of Controls
Recommendations
Raised
Homelessness
Green
Amber
High
0
Management of
Housing Register
Green
Green
0
0
0
Strategic Housing
Green
Green
0
0
0
Performance
Information
Green
Green
0
0
0
Risk Management
Green
Green
0
0
0
0
1
0
Total
High Priority Recommendations
No high priority recommendations have been raised as a result of this audit.
Management Responses
Management have accepted the recommendation raised.
Medium
1
Low
0
Appendix C (3)
Report No. NN/1303 – Final Report issued 23 August 2012
Audit Report on Corporate Policy, Planning and Performance Management
Audit Opinion
Adequate Assurance given
Rationale supporting award of opinion
The audit work carried out by Internal Audit indicated that:
•
While there is a basically sound system of internal control, there are weaknesses, which
put some of the client’s objectives at risk.
•
There is evidence that the level of non-compliance with some of the control processes
may put some of the client’s objectives at risk.
This opinion results from the fact that we have raised one medium recommendation and
that the new performance monitoring arrangements are still in their infancy, which
resulted in some controls not being able to be fully assessed.
•
Summary of Findings
Corporate Plan/Performance Management
An Annual Action Plan 2012-13 is in place, which links to the priorities detailed in the Corporate
Plan 2012-2015.
Action plans have been entered into the Performance Management System (TEN) with
responsible officers being assigned for each action plan activity.
The Performance Management Framework provides structures by which the priorities and actions
within the Corporate Plan can be monitored.
Resource requirements have been considered by the Corporate Leadership Team (CLT) and
officers during the planning of the Annual Action Plan. Consideration of financial resources
required to meet the Corporate Plan has been incorporated into the Council’s budget setting
process.
As monitoring processes have not commenced and thus testing could not be undertaken, the
effectiveness of the planning process cannot be determined.
Reporting and monitoring processes set down within the Performance Management Framework
allow for issues relating to resources or the ability to meet targets to be identified with action
taken as required.
Data collection arrangements are in place within the Council. The Policy and Performance
Management Officer aided members of staff in producing robust data collection methods,
including templates for the collection of data. The Policy and Performance Management Officer
confirms that performance targets have been updated prior to performance information being
reported to Performance and Risk Management Board.
Validation of performance data is not currently undertaken within the Council outside of the
checks undertaken by Internal Audit, within service reviews through delivery of the annual audit
plans.
Reporting against targets for 2012/13 had yet to take place due to the infancy of reporting the
new arrangements, and given that training on the new arrangements was still being rolled out at
the time of our audit. As such, no testing could be undertaken on reporting of performance as
part of this audit, although checking of performance management is included as standard for all
system based audits and will continue to do so throughout delivery of the 2012/13 audit plan.
Risk Management
Risks have been identified within the Corporate Risk Register and within the TEN service
summaries. Mitigation plans have been put in place within the Corporate Risk Register and TEN
service summaries.
The following number of recommendations has been raised:
Area of Scope
Adequacy
and
Effectiveness
Assessments
Adequacy
of
Controls
Effectiveness
of Controls
Recommendations
Raised
Corporate Plan /
Performance
Management
Green
Amber
High
0
Risk Management
Green
Green
0
0
0
0
1
0
Total
High Priority Recommendations
No high priority recommendations have been raised as a result of this audit.
Management Responses
Management have accepted the recommendation raised.
Medium
1
Low
0