| Number | Item |
| | Agenda Front Page  |
| | 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 1st December 2015 |
| 4. | Part I – For Decision |
| | The report sets out findings and brief of the recent audit into the controls designed and operated by the Council to ensure it meets its data protection obligations. The findings and recommendations of the report have been accepted by officers and the report includes a completed action plan wherein officers set out plans for improvements to the service. |
| | Data Protection |
| 5. | 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 2015/16. In addition the report reviews on the lessons learnt from the accounts process in 2014/15.The Council has completed a review of its accounting policies that will be used for the publication of the statement of accounts; they are presented in Appendix A. |
| | Presentation of Financial Statements |
| 6. | The report sets out the Internal Audit Charter covering the work Mid Kent Audit undertakes at Ashford Borough Council. The Charter and its annual review is a requirement of Public Sector Internal Audit Standards. For 2016/17 aside from minor updates the most significant change is expansion of the potential scope of audit’s work as outlined by new guidance issued by the Institute of Internal Audit. |
| | Internal Audit Charter 2016/17 |
| 7. | The report sets out the detail of the proposed plan for Mid Kent Audit’s work at Ashford BC during 2016/17 along with an outline plan for further years up to 2018/19. The plan is a development of the four year plan approved by this Committee in March 2015 updated for continuing risk assessment discussions with officers and feedback from Members. |
| | Internal Audit Plan |
| 8. | Part II – Monitoring/Information Items |
| | Over the past few months Officers have reviewed the content of the council’s risk register in the light of the council’s adoption of a new corporate plan and ongoing work to develop its supporting delivery plan. The refreshed corporate risk register aims to collate in one place and on a common structure the headline strategic risks identified by management as potentially affecting achievement of our corporate aims. By its nature the register represents a view at a particular point in time. Although the register and its detailed content will change over time initial impetus for this creation comes from a number of risk workshops involving service and senior management at Ashford held in late 2015 and early 2016.Although a number of different risks were identified and discussed at the workshops this paper summarises those regarded as most prominent. In other words these are the risks that could present the greatest threat to the authority being able to achieve its corporate objectives. |
| | Strategic Risk Management |
| 9. | This is a covering summary to three reports from Grant Thornton UK external auditor to the Council. Elizabeth Olive (Engagement Lead) and Lisa Robertson (Engagement Manager) will be attending from Grant Thornton and will introduce the reports and take questions.The first report presents the certification letter following completion of the audit of the housing benefit grant claim. The grant claim was significant (£36.7million) and following further sample testing the auditors made no amendment or qualification to the claim.The second report updates the committee on the auditor's work and plans for the current financial year's financial audit. It highlights some key areas of focus for the auditor and the assurance testing to be applied and of approaches to materiality risk identification and the value for money assessment. The report also summarises the auditor's interim findings where no matters of concern are identified for reporting.The third report is another in the series of general updates from the auditor. This update includes references to a number of recent publications of topical interest to members and officers. Of particular note is a reference to guidance having been recently issued by CIPFA concerning the new requirement for 'auditor panels' for when councils have the ability to procure their own external audit. The Committee will receive a full report on this issue at its next meeting. Note that for this council a decision to appoint an external auditor must be taken and awarded by no later than 31 December 2017. |
| | Reports from External Auditor (Grant Thornton UK) |
| | (a) Certification of Grant Claims – Annual Report |
| | (b) External Audit Work Plan for Ashford Borough Council |
| | (c) Audit Committee Update |
| 10. | Report Tracker and Future Meetings |