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Item 13.4 - Attachment 1 |
Audit Committee Minutes November 2008 |
MINUTES OF THE AUDIT COMMITTEE HELD IN MEETING ROOMS 1 AND 2, GROUND
FLOOR, COUNCIL CHAMBER BUILDING ON THURSDAY, 6 NOVEMBER 2008 AT 6:54 PM
_________________________________________________________
PRESENT
Councillor Andrew
Wilson (as chairperson), Councillor Michael McDermott, Pamela Fynan – Community
representative, Frank Mersal – community representative,
IN
ATTENDANCE
Dr Robert Lang, Chief
Executive Officer, Michael Quirk - Manager Service Audit & Review, Michael
Thomas – Economic Development Manager, Michael Maclean – Service Manager
Commercial & Risk, Denis Banicevic – External Auditor, and Erin Lottey –
Minute Clerk.
APOLOGIES
Councillor
Julia Finn
ELECTION
OF CHAIRPERSON
RESOLVED (McDermott)
That
Councillor Andrew Wilson be elected as the chairperson for the Audit Committee
CONFLICT
OF INTEREST DECLARATIONS
There were no
conflict of interest declarations at this meeting.
21/08 Audit
Committee Minutes – 2008
RESOLVED (Lang/McDermott)
That the minutes of
the Audit Committee Meeting held on
AGENDA
ITEMS
22/08 Presentation
of Audited Financial Statements
The Committee
considered the timing of the reporting of these financial statements. It was agreed that a motion would be moved in
general business to require statements to be provided to the audit committee
before being presented to Council, and to make any necessary changes to the
audit committee meeting schedule to enable this.
23/08 Report
of Internal Audit Activities
Michael
Quirk briefed the committee on a number of recent audit activities, including:
~ Corporate credit cards
Matters
included in discussion were:
- The
level of detail provided in the memo regarding this issue
- The
need for a review of Council’s policy on corporate credit cards
- The
recent review of current card allocation initiated by the CEO with the outcome
of reducing cards
~ Parking meters cash collection
Matters
included in discussion were:
- The
adequacy of previous and current reconciliation processes
- The
timeframes of reconciliations
- The
adequacy of other loose cash handling procedures throughout Council
- The
need for independent advice or oversight to the reconciliation process
~ the Governance Health Check
Matters
included in discussion were:
- The
need for improved accountability around risk management and fraud &
corruption control.
24/08 Report
on Analysis of Legal and Consultant Expenditure
It was noted that the
previous Council called for a detailed report to be provided to the Audit
committee. Matters discussed include:
~ Analysis
of the quality of legal advice, previous analyses of this area, and limitations
of such an analysis on the basis of a number of variables
~ The
possibility of developing better indicators of the quality of advice, such as
costs recovered and number of successful actions taken
~ The
relative importance of the matter given that legal expenditure constitutes
0.76% of Council’s total expenditure
~ Whether
there is value in engaging in-house legal expertise.
25/08 Procurement,
Risk and Insurance Status Report
The Service Manager
Commercial and Risk, Michael Maclean, spoke to a paper that had been
distributed regarding the role that the Commercial and Risk unit perform for
Council. Matters discussed include:
~ The
use of Tenderlink, and an explanation of the Council’s tender process
~ A
review of insurance claims
~ Compliance
with Council’s Code of Conduct as a condition of the contract, and making a
breach of that condition a reason for immediate termination of the contract.
~ Forms
of payment to contractors
~ Financial
checks on successful tenderers
~ Probity
around the contract evaluation process
26/08 Effectiveness of Economic Development
Special Levy
Council’s Economic
Development Manager briefed the committee on the projects funded by the
economic development special rate.
Matters discussed included:
- How
the money has been used;
- Dr
Kucheler’s assessment of the project to date;
- Alternative
approaches to projects funds allocations
- The
current and possible future indicators of success
- How
the business community gives input to projects
General
Business
27/08 Financial
Statements
RESOLVED
(Lang / Wilson)
That
audit reports of Council’s financial statements be considered by the audit
committee prior to the reports being listed at a Council meeting, and
Further,
that the schedule of audit committee meetings be altered as is necessary to
ensure the reports are considered within the appropriate timeframes.
28/08 Internal
Audit Guidelines
Denis
Banicevic advised that the Department of Local Government has released Internal
Audit Guidelines. The committee
requested that these be distributed to committee members and listed as an
agenda item for the next meeting of the committee.
29/08 Next
Meeting
The
next meeting of the audit committee will be scheduled for
The
meeting terminated at