| Number | Item |
| | Agenda Front Sheet  |
| | Agenda Papers |
| | Minutes for this Meeting |
| 1. | Apologies/Substitutes |
| 2. | Declarations of Interest |
| 3. | Minutes - To approve the Minutes of the Meeting of this Committee held on the 4th December 2012 |
| 4. | Part 1 - For Decision |
| | Following on from previous reports to the Committee various options for the future of the fraud investigation team have now been considered. The need to consider options is brought about by welfare reform changes and connected with these is the government’s intention that a new ‘single fraud investigation service’ operated by the Department for Work and Pensions (possibly fully from 2015) will investigate social security benefits tax credits and Universal Credit (when commenced). Housing benefit is being abolished and a new housing cost element will be included in Universal Credit. Local authorities will therefore lose responsibility for housing benefit investigations. Councils will retain responsibility for investigating council tax including council tax support and will retain responsibility for other types of fraud investigations (such as housing tenancy fraud). In parallel with a review by the Mid Kent Audit Partnership our own review has been carried out and the conclusions are now reported. The preferred option for the future is for the council to retain a fraud investigation service and for this to stand alone as a service within the council so that its scope can widen to other service areas. This is supported by the management team. The proposal if supported by the Committee and the Cabinet as this is also a service structure and budget issue will need more work on the scope and the financial issues as indicative only but reasonable assumptions are made in the attached report. |
| | Future of the Fraud Investigation Team |
| 5. | External Audit Plan - Grant Thornton |
| 6. | External Audit Update - Grant Thornton |
| 7. | Certification of Grant Claims Annual Report - Grant Thornton |
| 8. | Assurance from those Charged with Governance |
| 9. | The Council is required to follow statutory guidance for the publication of its accounts. Each year this guidance is reviewed and updated. This report will look at the impact of these updates on the Council’s accounts for 2012/13. In addition the report reviews on the lessons learnt from accounts process for 2011/12.The Council has completed a review of its accounting policies that will be used for the production of the statement of accounts |
| | Presentation of Financial Statements |
| 10. | This report informs members of the current position regarding the authority’s strategic risks |
| | Strategic Risk Review |
| 11. | This short paper follows on from the report to the September meeting of the committee and explains progress against the one area for continued work which was included in the Annual Governance Statement agreed by the committee at the September meeting. This highlighted matter: continued work to improve the council’s partnership governance arrangements following a review of the principles of good partnership governance during 2012. |
| | Annual Governance Statement - Progress on Remedying Highlighted Significant Areas of Governance |
| 12. | The report sets out the one-year Internal Audit operational plan for 2013/14 and asks that the Audit Committee review and approve the Plan. |
| | Internal Audit Operational Plan 2013/14 |
| 13. | The report provides a summary of the new standards for the provision of internal audit within public sector organisations in the United Kingdom. The standards are effective from 1 April 2013. The Audit Committee is asked to note the new standards and the action that will be taken to implement them for the Mid Kent Audit Partnership which includes Ashford Borough Council. |
| | Public Sector Internal Audit Standards |
| 14. | Part II - Monitoring/Information Items |
| | The Audit Committee is asked to consider a number of potential development areas for inclusion in the Future Work Programme. |
| | Audit Committee - Future Works Programme |
| 15. | Report Tracker and Future Meetings |