Agenda item

Service Reports:

NNDR

Council Tax

Housing Benefit

Budgetary Control

Presented by Philip Lazenby

He would like to assure the committee that currently there are no staff on furlough and the business is running fully therefore there should be no issues completed the work according to the current deadlines.

There have been 4 reports provided

·         Budgetary control

·         Council Tax

·         NNDR

·         Housing Benefit

All four of these have substantial assurance with just 2 recommendations, both of which are in relation to NNDR.  This represents an excellent outturn in respect of the controls.

The root cause indicator section shows where the areas of perceived weakness are in relation to the Council over a prolonged period of time.  He will talk about this in greater detail at the next Committee meeting.

The executive summaries section gives an overview of each of the reports.

There were 2 recommendations in relations to NNDR, the recommendations are as follows:

·         The reliefs exemptions –  comprehensive risk assessment required

·         Declarations of friends and family who live in the area need to be reviewed on an ongoing basis.

These have been agreed by managements with very reasonable time frames for completion.

All other reports were substantive with no recommendations.

The progress against the annual plan has been affected by COVID, there are a number of reports left to complete, however 4 reports are substantially underway and due to be completed shortly. In addition 3 others are due to commence imminently.  

Cllr Townsend would like to know what the handover procedure was from the previous Internal Audit company. PL explains there were a series of meetings with Mazzars and copies of all the reports and recommendations issues last year were received. All recommendations have been followed up.

Councillor Chapman notes that the last update was received in 2014, he would like to know if this is normal as it seems a very long period of time. PL explains that this was when the document was last amended and this was ascertained during the course of the review, the last update was actually provided 30 August 2020.

Cllr Birnie explains that he did raise the issue of the 2014 amended date with the previous auditors as he considers this to be very important, DBCs policy for some time now has been to move all services online where possible, so he feels it is absolutely essential that the ICT department is of the highest standard and complying to all auditors recommendations, he would make this a priority. PL confirms they have a business continuity review scheduled which should provide some assurances.

Councillor Townsend and Councillor Chapman have no concerns around ICT at this time and feel all explanations will be covered in due course. 

James Deane confirms that Ben Trueman has been in front of the committee and provided a detailed overview, the recommendations surrounding ICT are priority 2 and not fundamental to the running of this department, it is however still important and will be corrected.

Councillor SO Mahmood would like to know if recommendation 1 under NNDR is related to COVID. PL explains this was brought up as a matter of routine and was not in direct relation to COVID.

Councillor Symington would like to know what the risk is associated with the declaration forms. Chris Baker explains that from those declarations people’s access can be blocked from certain accounts. Bearing in mind these people have been recruited and are trusted, all necessary training is provided and accounts are monitored. This is simply an additional level of control by having people complete these forms and getting them refreshed regularly. 

Councillor Silwal requests a copy of the Audit Guide for finical reporting and management during COVID 19. PL will provide the guide to the Committee members.

Councillor Townsend would like an example of where a particular policy has been in place and how that is tested. PL will provide this information outside the meeting to all committee members