Issue - meetings

Consider report by Chief Officer Audit and Risk.  (Copy attached.)

There had been circulated copies of a report by the Chief Officer Audit and Risk submitting the Audit and Scrutiny Committee Annual Report 2018/19 to all elected members presenting the Committee’s performance in relation to its Terms of Reference (Audit functions) and the effectiveness of the Committee in meeting its purpose.  It was important that the Council’s Audit and Scrutiny Committee (Audit functions) fully complied with best practice guidance on Audit Committees to ensure it could demonstrate its effectiveness as a scrutiny body as a foundation for sound corporate governance for the Council.  The CIPFA Audit Committees Guidance included the production of an annual report on the performance of the Audit and Scrutiny Committee against its remit (Audit functions) for submission to the Council. The Audit and Scrutiny Committee Annual Report 2018/19 was contained in Appendix 1 to the report. Scottish Borders Council continued to be a lead authority in adopting this best practice.  The Audit and Scrutiny Committee carried out self-assessments of Compliance with the Good Practice Principles Checklist and Evaluation of Effectiveness Toolkit from the CIPFA Audit Committees Guidance during their Informal Session on 11 March 2019 facilitated by the Chief Officer Audit & Risk. The Members of the Committee considered the Annual Report and supporting self-assessment documents at their meeting on 25 June 2019 and agreed that they accurately represented the results of the self-assessment exercise. The outcome of the self-assessments was a high degree of performance against the good practice principles and a medium degree of effectiveness, with areas of improvement identified.  Councillor Bell, as Chairman of the Committee spoke in support of the report and thanked the Chief Officer Audit and Risk and her team for their support.  He also commented on the importance of the petitions dealt with by the Committee which had resulted in a total of 14 meetings over the year. He further highlighted the value of the 2 external members to the work of the Committee and supported the amendments to the Scheme of Administration.

DECISION

AGREED:-

(a)     to acknowledge the performance of the Audit and Scrutiny Committee and approve its Annual Report 2018/19, as contained in Appendix 1 to the report); and

(b)     the proposed amendments to the Membership and Audit functions within the Terms of Reference of the Audit and Scrutiny Committee, set out in the Council’s Scheme of Administration, as detailed in the report.