ST CHARLES CATHOLIC SIXTH FORM COLLEGE
GOVERNORS’ AUDIT COMMITTEE
Minutes of a meeting held on Thursday, 15th September 2011
at 8.30am in the Principal’s office.
Present:
Mr Michael Lindemann
Mr Gianluca Marcato
Mr Cardox Ocran
Mr David Thompson
Apologies:
In Attendance: Mr Paul O’Shea
Ms Helen Kalamuniak
Mr Rakesh Shaunak (MacIntyre Hudson) - For items 2 &3.
Mr John Lee (Clerk)
1 MINUTES, MATTERS ARISING
The minutes of the meeting held on Monday, 6th June 2011 were accepted as a correct
record and signed by Mr Lindemann.
2 INTERNAL AUDIT ANNUAL REPORT, 2010/11
MacIntyre Hudson’s report is in the prescribed format of the Audit Code of Practice
(ACoP) and complies with the Government Internal Audit Standards. The coverage
was as planned. The College management have agreed to implement the
recommendations for improvement in some areas.
Mr Shaunak confirmed his report's findings that sufficient internal audit work had
been undertaken to satisfy him that the College has adequate and effective
management, control and governance processes to manage its achievement of the
College's objectives.
3 FOUR YEAR AUDIT STRATEGY (2008/09, 2009/10, 2010/11, 2011/12) AND
2011/12 ANNUAL PLAN
The Principal and the Finance Director had worked with the auditors on the
draft plans.
The plan and strategy were produced following an analysis of the College Risk
Management Plan, sector issues and previous IAS work.
Four Year Strategy There are eight modules: (i)Corporate Governance & Risk
Management (ii)Key Financial Controls (iii)Commercial Activities (iv)Planning and
Funding (v)Partnerships (vi)Regulatory & Compliance (vii)Use of Resources
(viii)Special Reviews / College Choice. All of the business areas prescribed by the
ACoP are reviewed over the cycle of the strategy.
2011/12 Annual Plan It was agreed that the following business areas would be
reviewed; corporate governance, risk management, bank & cash, suppliers, payroll, student
support / pastoral care, student enrolment, health & safety, human resources and ICT.
The emphasis will be on an assessment of the controls in place to mitigate identified
risks in the College Risk Management Plan. Work will start in January.
(i)MacIntyre Hudson’s work this year will include a visit to RBKC; the College’s
payroll providers where Mr Shaunak said he would be able to check St Charles
pension records for teaching staff. - This was in response to a query from Ms
Kalamuniak on variances in the pensions records. MacIntyre Hudson carry out a
separate pensions audit.- (ii)The work on student enrolment will focus on the use of
the YPLA’s Data Self-Assessment Toolkits (DSATs). - Mr Shaunak explained that
the College could be subject to a separate YPLA funding audit. - (iii)A new 16-18
Bursary scheme has been launched by the YPLA. Mr O’Shea said that the College
will have circa £140K to distribute and a College bursary policy needs to be
developed and warned that the administration of this new fund would represent a
significant additional workload. Mr Shaunak proposed to take c.10 hours audit time
from Health and Safety and use it for work on student support / pastoral care, an area
Mr Shaunak felt needed additional work
123 hours for the ‘audit areas’ work and 15 hours for planning and follow-up work at
a cost of £9,975 was agreed. This does not include VAT.
The committee would recommend to the Governing Body that it approve the Four
Year Audit Strategy and 2011/12 Annual Plan on this basis.
4 REVIEW OF MACINTYRE HUDSON’S PERFORMANCE, 2010/11 AND
AGREE PIs FOR 2011/12
The performance of MacIntyre Hudson was considered and the appendix to the annual
report was completed to reflect the consensus of the opinions of the Governors and
the College management.
It was agreed that the same performance indicators would be used to appraise
MacIntyre Hudson's 2011/12 work.
Although the College is satisfied with MacIntyre Hudson’s work, it was agreed that
there should be a tendering exercise for the 2012/13 internal audit. Mr Shaunak was
made aware of this at the end of his report.
5 REVIEW 2010/11 REGULARITY AUDIT SELF-ASSESSMENT
QUESTIONNAIRE
All the references to the LSC have been changed to YPLA / SFA. Ms Kalamuniak
reported that Area 25, compliance with terms and conditions of YPLA / SFA discrete
capital grant funding, has been updated to include the £293K and £29K capital grant
receipts received at the end of the year.
There are no other amendments to the 2009/10 audited questionnaire.
The questionnaire will be passed to Baker Tilly for audit.
6 REVIEW 2010/2011 GOVERNING BODY SELF-ASSESSMENT
It was agreed that the committee would recommend that the Governors approve the
2010/11 governance self-assessment and consider what areas would benefit from
extra training in 2011/12 at the governing body meeting on 4th October.
7 ANY OTHER BUSINESS
Financial Statements and Audit Management Letter 2009/10
The YPLA had written to the College on 14th July concerning deficiencies in Baker
Tilly’s audit letter. Mr O’Shea’s response was agreed with Baker Tilly.
There was recognition that the weaknesses arose on account of the absence of Helen
Kalamuniak, the permanent Director of Finance; she has now returned from sabbatical
leave.
8 DATE OF NEXT MEETING
The date for the next meeting of the committee is Monday, 21st November 2011 at
8.30am.
The meeting was quorate.