Agenda item
Latest Internal Audit Reports
- Meeting of Senedd Commission Audit and Risk Assurance Committee, Monday, 10 November 2014 09.00 (Item 4.)
- View the background to item 4.
Minutes:
4.1
Gareth
introduced the report on the review of fixed asset management, for which all
recommendations had been accepted and the follow-up report on the review of
facilities contract management.
4.2
In
response to questions from Committee members in relation to fixed assets,
Nicola Callow assured the committee that:
a.
the
Commission’s accountant would be working with ICT to identify assets which
needed to be capitalised;
b.
assets
over £5,000 would be picked up as part of the interim review of the accounts;
c.
serial
numbers for all assets would be recorded before the year-end; and
d.
an
assessment of exposure on leases had been carried out to prepare for any
impact.
4.3
Gareth
presented the report on the review of recruitment which had been carried out in
response to a request from the Chief Executive.
4.4
Claire
assured the Committee that the results of the audit were being used to inform a
series of improvements. This would include:
a.
the
development, by the Management Board, of a set of principles around
decision-making for recruitment;
b.
ensuring
that the policies, processes and guidance were coherent, accessible, regularly
reviewed and properly understood by staff;
c.
ensuring
that the adoption of the principles and policies, and the reasons for decisions
around recruitment exercises were transparent;
d.
ensuring
that thorough reviews were carried out for each recruitment exercise which
would include checks that records had been captured and retained in accordance
with records management rules and data protection legislation; and
e.
encouraging
better ownership of issues by Heads of Service around recruitment, development
and performance.
4.5
The
Committee endorsed this approach and emphasised the importance of transparency,
fairness, and effective record-keeping.
4.6
The
Chair also offered to work with the Head of HR to develop the recruitment
principles and review the underpinning policies and processes. The recruitment business case template would
be shared with Committee members.
4.7
Gareth
introduced the HR Payroll report via a presentation. The review was carried out by Gareth and Gwyn
Thomas, an independent expert.
4.8
This review
concentrated on the governance of the project, rather than the core
functionality of the system. Gareth
concluded that the scope was ambitious, the resources were limited and that the
timescales were fixed. These factors
contributed to delays in delivering phase 1 of the HR Payroll project.
4.9
His
report did not single out individuals, but highlighted recommendations around
questions that could have been raised by the Investment Board and Management
Board.
4.10 Committee members were surprised that individuals
with little or no project management experience were allocated to this
important and complex project and that such contradictory answers were given to
some of the questions asked of the project team.
4.11 Claire was disappointed and frustrated that
this project was not executed to the normal standard of other high profile,
complex projects within the Commission.
She assured the Committee that for future projects of this scale, SROs
and PMs would be selected at the Investment and Resourcing Board. Claire also confirmed that she would write to
all new SROs, setting out her expectations of them and would appoint mentors
where appropriate.
4.12 The Chair thanked Gareth for his
presentation and urged officials that phase 2 should not proceed without full scrutiny
of the Project Initiation Document (PID).
The project team should embrace external scrutiny to better ensure
success.
4.13
It was
agreed that all internal audit recommendations from previous years must be
completed by the February meeting.
Actions
-
Nicola
Callow to provide an update on recording of serial numbers on all fixed assets
at the February meeting.
-
Mike
Snook to circulate the recruitment business case template to Committee members.
-
Mike
Snook to engage with a Committee member to provide external scrutiny for phase
2 of the HR/Payroll project, including reviewing the PID.
-
Mike
Snook to feedback progress on implementation of recommendations for phase 1 of
the HR/Payroll project.
-
Gareth
Watts to report on the sign-off of all internal audit recommendations from
previous years at the February meeting.