(KEY DECISION)

Report No. 177/2016 was received from the Director for Resources.

The Assistant Director (Finance), Mr Della Rocca, introduced the report. In accordance with Section 6 of the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2011, the Chief Finance Officer and the Chief Executive are responsible for maintaining an adequate and effective internal audit of the Council’s accounting records, control systems and financial transactions including any operations affecting the financial arrangements or the finances of the Council.  The Internal Audit service is delivered in-house but as a result of difficulties in recruitment and other challenges, the report proposed an option for the future delivery of the Internal Audit service.  Officers had looked at various options but had concluded that delegating the service to the Local Government Shared Service (LGSS) was the preferred option.

During discussion the following points were raised:

i)                 That LGSS would be liable for the cost of staff redundancies where these resulted from a LGSS restructure.

ii)               Obligations to ensure ‘pension protection’ would be assessed at the time of transfer.

DECISIONS

1)    Cabinet APPROVED, subject to satisfactory completion of due diligence and any consultations as appropriate, the delegation of the delivery of internal audit services to Local Government Shared Service under section 101 of the Local Government Act 1972.

2)    Cabinet AGREED that authority be delegated to the Director for Resources in conjunction with the Portfolio Holder for Corporate Finance to formalise, approve and enter into a collaboration agreement with the Local Government Shared Service from 2017/18 in accordance with the principles set out in this report.

Reason for the decision

1.     The Council was required to have an internal audit service.