Membership
The Audit and
Corporate Governance Committee consists of seven non-Executive
councillors (those are not Members of the Cabinet) appointed in
accordance with the rules of political balance. The Chairman of the
Scrutiny and Overview Committee cannot be Chairman of the Audit and
Corporate Governance Committee but can be an ordinary member of
it.
Delegation of Functions
The Committee can
delegate its functions to its Chairman and to Officers, as
appropriate.
Functions
A. General
Responsibility of the Audit and Corporate
Governance Committee:
·
To review and advise the Council on the embedding
and maintenance of an effective system of corporate governance,
risk management and internal control.
·
To give assurance to the Council that there is a
sufficient and systematic review of the corporate governance, risk
management and internal control arrangements within the
Council.
·
in conjunction with the Chief Finance Officer, to
commission such “value for money” or special studies as
considered appropriate;
·
to consider the Performance Indicators and Local
Authority Profile as published by the Audit Commission and, as
appropriate, initiate investigative action;
·
to recommend to the Council action in respect any
issues of major concern arising from audit reports and/or
management letters.
·
to maintain an overview of the main instruments of
financial control, such as Standing Orders in relation to
contracts, Financial Regulations etc., and, where appropriate, make
recommendations to the Council for improvement.
·
to approve the Statement of Accounts;
·
to receive quarterly updates on the Council’s
use of Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) powers
and to review the RIPA policy on an annual basis and make
amendments as necessary.
Shared responsibility with the
Cabinet:
·
to monitor the overall efficiency and effectiveness
of the internal and external audit services.
·
to be informed by the Chief Finance Officer, at his
discretion, of any matters of suspected fraud and/or
maladministration, pending receipt of an interim or final
report.
B.
External Audit
Responsibility of the Audit and Corporate Governance
Committee:
·
to oversee, generally, the work of external audit
and provide a suitable forum for discussion of related
matters;
·
to consider, annually, the programme of work to be
performed by external audit and the draft audit time
budget;
·
to confirm that the managed audit approach between
external audit and internal audit is working for the maximum
advantage of the Council;
·
to receive, upon request, periodic presentations on
specialist audit areas or other matters of interest.
Shared responsibility with the Cabinet:
·
to receive copies of all external audit reports
including value for money studies;
·
to monitor, annually, or more frequently where
deemed appropriate, the implementation of agreed recommendations in
respect of both external audit reports and management
letters.
C.
Internal Audit
Responsibility of the Audit and Corporate Governance
Committee:
·
to review and confirm annually with the Chief
Finance Officer the Audit Risk Index and Strategic Audit
Plan;
·
in association with the Chief Finance Officer, to
consider the total resource requirements for the coming year and
the proposed level of fees and fee structure;
·
to monitor the activities of the Internal Audit
service provider and measure performance against plan;
·
to review the annual report of the Internal Audit
Manager;
·
to examine and review the planning and co-ordination
of internal audits withthe aim of confirming an effective and
efficient service continues to be provided;
·
to consider a quarterly report by the Audit Manager
detailing audit coverage and the extent to which any major problems
were highlighted;
·
to consider the draft statement on internal control
prior to its inclusion in the statement of accounts.
These Terms of Reference can be
found in the
SCDC Constitution, Part 3 – Responsibility for Functions
and were agreed by
Council on 25 January 2007.
The Audit and Corporate
Governance Committee replaced the Audit Panel in 2007.