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Item 12.4
- Attachment 2 |
Minutes
of Meeting 25 August 2011 |
REPORT OF THE MEETING
OF THE AUDIT COMMITTEE HELD IN MEETING ROOMS 1 AND 2, GROUND FLOOR, COUNCIL
CHAMBER BUILDING ON THURSDAY, 25 AUGUST
2011 AT 6. 51PM
PRESENT
Neil Adams in the
Chair, Mike Barry, Brendyn Williams, Bill Rock, Councillor
IN
ATTENDANCE
Dennis Banicevic (External Auditor), Joy Bramham (Minute
Clerk), Maurice Doria (General Counsel),
APOLOGIES
Apologies were received and noted from Councillor Andrew
Wilson, Dr Rob Lang (CEO), and
WELCOME
Neil Adams welcomed new members to the committee and as
former Chairman of the Audit Committee undertook, with agreement of the Committee,
to chair the meeting.
CONFLICT
OF INTEREST DECLARATIONS
Mr Bill Rock placed
on record that he has an arrangement with IAB Services which does not involve
any work at present though may in the future.
Mr Neil Adams placed
on record that he also has an arrangement with IAB Services which does not
involve any work at present though may in the future.
MINUTES
22/11 Audit Committee Minutes – 12 May 2011
RESOLVED (Finn/
Barry)
That the minutes of the Audit Committee Meeting held on 12
May 2011 be received and accepted as a true record of the meeting.
MATTERS ARISING FROM PREVIOUS
MEETING
Action 24 – Risk Analysis for Civic
Place
Action 41 - ACL Continuous Control
Monitoring Project
Service
Auditor Memorandum dated 5 August had previously been circulated to all members
and will be discussed later in the meeting as Item 5.
Action 41 to be closed
Action 42 – Statistical Report to
include complaints against staff behaviours
Councillor
McDermott suggested that complaints against Councillors be included in the
report as well. It was noted that petty complains regarding Councillors are not
captured by any reporting tools.
The Committee
noted that any serious grievances should be reported more regularly than
annually. The Committee would like to be informed of any major issues at the
earliest opportunity.
Mr Doria
advised that all complaints received by Council, whether it is against a staff
member or a councillor, are handled by Service Audit Review Unit. Any complaint
against a councillor would be dealt with in accordance with the Code of
Conduct.
Mr Adams
noted the purpose of the requested report is to allow the Committee to see the
culture within Council and that systems are working. The statistics are to be accompanied by a
brief explanation of the complaints and the responses.
Action 42 remains open
Burwood and
Mr Doria
advised that an analysis of the recommendations emanating from both the Burwood
and
Neil Adams
requested those issues that were listed as specific to Burwood Council be
relooked at by Mr Doria in terms of being addressed in Parramatta, prior to
issue to Committee members.
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Action 43 That
copies of the reports prepared in response to the recommendations of the
Burwood and Willoughby Council investigations by the ICAC be provided to
Committee members. |
Appreciation to External Committee
Members
It was noted
that letters of appreciation, requested by the Committee, were not received by
the external committee members following expiration of their terms of
engagement. The Committee noted that although such letters are at the Lord
Mayor’s discretion, it was more likely that a breakdown in communication was
the issue.
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Action 44 That the
CEO convey the message to the Lord Mayor in relation to this matter. |
AGENDA ITEMS
23/11 Amendment to the Committee Charter
A copy of
the Service Auditor Memorandum dated 14 July 2011 had previously been
circulated to all members.
RESOLVED (Rock/Williams)
(a) That the Committee endorse the amended Charter as attached to
Service Auditor Memorandum dated 14 July 2011.
(b) Further that the Committee recommend to Council that the amended
charter be formally approved by council.
24/11 Strategic and Annual Audit Plan 2011 /2012
A copy of
the Service Auditor Memorandum dated 17 August had previously been circulated
to all members.
A general
discussion was held on the resources and time required for the audit plan.
Concerns were raised over the amount of time spent running the ACL tests. It
was noted that this is partly being used as an evaluation and testing tool on
the data migrated from the old to the new systems..Many of these tests will not
be run as frequently and will be eventually handed over to the line managers as
part of their business functions in future..
Councillor
Finn commented that the audit plan addresses mainly governance and financial
related risks but not social and environmental risks. The Committee discussed
the triple bottom line reporting and noted that social and environmental
factors are becoming more important to local councils.
It was
further noted that there is a relative lack of benchmarks of the audit work for
councils as compared to state government agencies.
RESOLVED (Adams/Finn)
That a presentation by responsible
council managers be made to the November 2011 Audit Committee meeting addressing
the management of social and environmental risks to council.
RESOLVED (Adams/Barry)
(a) That a progress report on
the implementation of the ACL Continuous Control Monitoring project be provided
at the first meeting in 2012.
(b) That a report to be
presented on the resources allocation for both in-house and co-sourced tasks in
the 2011/2012 Audit Plan.
Note: Councillor M McDermott retired
from the meeting at 7.35pm during consideration of this item.
25/11 Report of Internal Audit Activities
A copy of
the Service Auditor Memorandum dated 12 August 2011 had been emailed but not all
the Committee members had received the full set of business papers for this
meeting.
It was
noted the above problem was probably caused by email systems not enabling
transmission of the attached documents because of their large file size..
RESOLVED (Adams/Rock)
(a) That, in addition to the
electronic copies of business papers, hard copies are to be mailed to all
Committee members to arrive on the Friday before the meeting.
(b) That Committee members
review those business papers that were not received electronically, and any
issues can be raised at the November 2011 meeting.
Mr Doria
advised that the Network Security audit assisted the IT department by providing
the additional check that helped to identify improvements.
Councillor
Finn noted that there were problems with Councillor computer security and noted
that the issues were more on protocol than security problems, for example not
having to change the passwords, email monitoring and Councillor emails
including non-Councillors.
Mr Doria
commented that Council recently applied stringent requirements on password
security, and that same protocol would include the councillors.
Mr Adams and
Councillor Finn questioned the purpose of the site inspections carried out by
the rates staff and any values add for the exercise.
Mr Cochrane
advised it was done to validate the classification of the properties and has
always been part of the processes.
Mr Williams
questioned whether Council use GPS systems and would that assist to confirm the
property classification. Further, he commented that physical inspection should
be triggered by sound reasons.
RESOLVED (Adams/Barry)
That Manager Finance report to the Audit
Committee at the November 2011 meeting regarding the values of carrying out
site inspection, including the time and frequency of inspections, and number of
exceptions found.
Mr Adams
commented on the audit reporting and appreciated having the additional details
rather than just the one page summary sheet (as the Committee previously
requested) and asked that this practice continue.
RESOLVED (Adams/Barry)
That future audit reports to include
the full “executive summary” as well as the one page summary report.
GENERAL BUSINESS
26/11 External Audit
The audit
for Council’s 2010/2011 financial statements will commence on 4 September 2011 and
submit to the Audit Committee meeting on 20 October before they are presented
to Council on 7 November.
Mr
Banicevic commented that Council’s controls are sound generally. The external
audit will include issues surrounding the assets revaluation - to ensure that
council meets the disclosure requirements and compliance with the Code of
Practice.
RESOLVED (Adams/Rock)
(a) That Dennis Banicevic provide materials
on the disclosure requirements by the Division of Local Government and any
changes in accounting standards that would impact on the assets valuation.
The
committee discussed other audits on work cover/safety and quality management that
are undertaken from an external point of view.
(b) That a copy of the ParraMatters/Forefront
newsletter be provided to the Committee members on a regular basis. The Committee noted that the newsletter
includes key performance indicators of council operating results.
27/11 Compliance obligations
The
Committee discussed broad compliance issues including legislative requirements
and questioned how Council is fulfilling its obligations and how this is
monitored.
Mr Doria
advised that an audit has been scheduled in the 2011/2012 Audit Plan on
legislative and regulatory compliance.
28/11 Committee Meeting Dashboard
Resolved (Adams/Barry)
That council managers prepare a
draft “Dashboard” setting out the annual and other regular matters to be
considered at each meeting of the Committee – to be submitted to the Committee
meeting in November 2011. (Mr Barry
provided an example of such a “dashboard” to assist as a guide.)
29/11 Election of Chair
This to be
the first order of business at 20 October 2011 meeting to allow all Committee members
to be present.
The meeting terminated at 9.06pm