SUMMARY OF AUDIT AND RISK COMMITTEE HELD ON 15 SEPTEMBER 2014
Held at: St Paul's Way Centre, 83 St Paul's Way, London E3 4AJ, at 6.30 p.m.
Board members present: John Norman (Chair), Colin Campbell (Co-optee),
Elizabeth Marshall, Matthew Rowe, Andrew Pinto, Simon Turek
Statutory Accounts
Our auditors KPMG attended the meeting to present the accounts and the
findings of their audit. They reported that the audit had gone well and that the
accounts reflected Poplar HARCA’s activities and complied with all relevant
legislation. KPMG noted that the accounts next year will look different as a new
accounting Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) will need to be
adopted.
The Committee agreed to recommend the accounts of Poplar HARCA and its
subsidiaries to the Board.
The Committee also agreed that KPMG should be reappointed for another year.
Internal Audit
We have recently appointed Baker Tilly as our new internal auditors. Baker Tilly
representatives also attended the meeting. They told the Committtee that since
they were appointed they have been getting to know Poplar HARCA and they
presented a draft 3 year internal audit programme for the Committee to consider.
The Committee approved the programme in principle, noting that it can be
reviewed over time in terms of any unforeseen events. The Committee felt that
80 days should be allocated to internal audit for the current year. This is an
increase on the previous allocation of 60 days and reflects the fact that Poplar
HARCA is now a more complex business than it was previously.
IFRS and SORP
The Accounting Standards Board is due to issue the new International Financial
Reporting Standard and a Statement of Recommended Practice shortly. Both
documents will relate to how information is disclosed in the accounts and Poplar
HARCA will need to follow their requirements. Consultation has come to an end
and the documents will be released this month.
Risk Management
The Committee reviewed Poplar HARCA’s risk map paying particular attention to
the risks that had changed since the last review.
Right to Buy Strategy
The Committee received a report on the number of RTB sales that have been
compleled. Although in the short term, RTBs are positive for the Business Plan,
the long term loss of income is not. The Committee noted that we aim to replace
lost units through our reshaping programme.
RTB Strategy is also of concern to the Board and they are also keeping a close
eye on it.
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Value for Money
The Committee received a report that included drafts of the VFM Self Assessment
that we intend to publish on our website and the statement for inclusion in the
accounts.
Our regulator the HCA has taken a greater interest in VFM over the last couple of
years and we felt we needed to say more in our accounts and on our website in
order to reflect our robust approach to VFM and the positive outcomes that we
have achieved. We agreed that evidence indicated that Poplar HARCA does
meet the VFM standard and we recommended both documents to the Board.
Health and Safety
The Committee considered the quarterly report from the Health and Safety
Manager.
John Norman
Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee
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