The Chief Internal Auditor presented the Internal Audit Plan 2014/2015, which was effectively year 2 of the Strategic Audit Plan for 2013/2016, approved by the Committee on 10 June 2013 (minute 10 refers), updated to reflect the changing risk profile of the organisation. He provided an explanation of how the Audit Plan for 2014/2015 was prepared and indicated the list of proposed areas to be audited during 2014/2015.

The Chief Internal Auditor highlighted the main changes to note and commented that Wirral Internal Audit Service operated a three year Strategic Internal Audit Plan – the rationale being to ensure that Internal Audit took a wider more strategic view of risk and to ensure that audit effort was utilised as efficiently and effectively as possible to mitigate risk in a changing environment. This was particularly important for Wirral Council at present as a number of control and governance issues were presented that required the attention of senior management across the organisation as well as many fundamental changes to what and how services were to be delivered. The Audit Plan was designed to inform that process, providing relevant assurance opinions on systems either in place or developing and providing direction assessments regarding actions required to implement the  necessary improvements,

The Plan provided an overview of the assurance that would be obtained through each audit. The exact scopes of the audits would be agreed with Senior Management prior to commencement of the audit to ensure that the key current risks were being addressed,

He indicated that the Audit plan had been devised following a risk based approach in line with the public sector audit standards using the following sources:

·  The Corporate Risk Register

·  Departmental Risk Registers

·  Engagement with senior officers

·  Review of the External Audit and Inspections reports

·  A review of corporate strategies

·  Cumulative audit knowledge and experience

·  Engagement with other Heads of Audit

·  Professional judgement on the risk of fraud and error

The Audit Plan would remain flexible, and would be reviewed on a quarterly basis to ensure it was in line with emerging risks. In response to a number of questions from Members, the Chief Internal Auditor confirmed that issues associated with the new Business Rates Retention Scheme and the write-off of Highways Maintenance debts had not been overlooked. Auditors were fully aware of the risks that were highlighted and more detail would be provided in future reports to Committee.

In response to a further question, he provided a summary of the allocation of audit days, which had been adjusted to reflect the establishment resource currently available. He anticipated that, barring any unforeseen significant issues arising, the resource would be sufficient to enable delivery across all areas of the plan and provide the required annual audit assurance opinion.

Resolved – That the delivery of year 2 of the Strategic Internal Audit Plan for 2013/2016 be endorsed.