South Holland District Council says it is working to improve after an audit raised “serious concerns” over how areas of it is run.
A report by the Eastern Internal Audit Services rated the council the ‘Limited Assurance’ grade in relation to framework of governance and risk management the second lowest it could be.
“Significant improvements are required to improve the adequacy and effectiveness of the controls to mitigate these risks,” says the report.
Limited Assurance means: “the controls in place are insufficient to ensure that the organisation can rely upon them to manage the risks to the continuous and effective achievement of the objectives of the process.
The findings are part of what’s called the Annual Opinion into the council.
The opinion states: “The overall opinion in relation to the framework of governance, risk management and control at South Holland District Council is Limited.
“During 2017/18 a total of 20 internal audit reviews have been completed at South Holland District Council, 14 of these concluded with a reasonable assurance.
“However, five of these concluded with a limited assurance, and one with no assurance. This raises serious concerns over the governance, risk management and control framework.
“Of the total recommendations raised in 2017/18 80 per cent of these (72 in number) are still risks for the council that require mitigation action to be completed to ensure that the associated risks are adequately addressed.
“The main areas of concern relate to Revenues, Human Resources and Payroll, Accounts Receivable, Section 106 Arrangements, Asset Management and Environmental Protection.
“It is noted that good progress is being made by management in these last three areas.”
Recommendations designated urgent include retaining documentation for all aspects of environmental permitting and undertaking a comprehensive review of all Section 106 agreements, those made during planning permissions between the authority and developers.
Malcolm Chandler, portfolio holder for strategy, governance and transformation, said: “The Low Assurance rating is clearly disappointing and we are working hard with our partner Compasspoint Business Services Limited and internally to address the concerns being raised with regards to the audits that have been undertaken and the issues that have been raised.
“This will be sustained area of focus to ensure that outstanding recommendations are fully addressed by our contractor and internally.”
“Since the publication of the report, the council has been working closely with Compass Point Business Services who provide services around income collection, benefits, finance and HR to address the issues highlighted in the report and we will be monitoring progress.”
