Report of the Assistant Director Resources/Treasurer

The Panel considered the report of the Assistant Director Resources/Treasurer (ADR/T) which provided an Opinion on East Sussex Fire Authority’s internal control environment and report on the work of Internal Audit for the period 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022.  Based on audit work completed, the Orbis Chief Internal Auditor, as East Sussex Fire Authority’s Head of Internal Audit, was able to provide reasonable assurance that the Authority had in place an adequate and effective framework of governance, risk management and internal control for the period. 

Individual reports on the systems evaluated included agreed actions to enhance controls and management had drawn up action plans to implement these.  All key performance indicators for the Internal Audit Service had been met or exceeded during the year with the exception of the target to deliver 90% of the audit plan.  The ADR/T confirmed that work was underway to address the issues identified in the audit of Surveillance Cameras and that this would be reported back to the Panel at a future meeting.  The Panel queried whether issues relating to Payroll had been resolved and whether the change of software would help.  The ADR/T confirmed that these issues were front end rather than relating to software and that the full report and action plan would be brought back to the next meeting of the Panel.

RESOLVED: The Panel agreed:

       i.         to note the Head of Internal Audit’s opinion on the Fire Authority’s internal control environment for 2021/22;

     ii.         to note that the review of HR/Payroll would be reported in full the November meeting of the Scrutiny & Audit Panel; and

    iii.         that the Fire Authority’s system for internal audit had proved effective during 2021/22.