Agenda and minutes

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 13 February 2025.

It was proposed by Councillor Morgan and seconded by Councillor Steemson that the minutes of the previous meeting be agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

All were in favour.

Resolved

That the minutes of the previous meeting be agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

None.

The Audit Manager introduced the item to the Committee.

The Housing audit had been deferred until June and the Procurement audit had been completed, and so was ready to be distributed to Members. The Democratic Services Audit result would be provided to them in the following week. The Strata audit had been postponed. The Funding and Partnership audit would ensure that TDC was giving money to well-functioning and well governed organisations. The data on the Procurement audit had been very transparent. The Audit Annual Report would go to Committee in June. The Committee considered a new audit process that would be with a view of achieving compliance.

It was proposed by Councillor Morgan and proposed by Councillor Steemson that the Internal Audit Progress report be noted.

RESOLVED

That the Internal Audit Progress report be noted.

The Audit Manager presented the report to the Committee.

It was noted that the Constitution Review Group was ongoing and members of this group should be feeding back to their political groups. Members of the Committee viewed the consolidated plan which included the Grant Thornton statutory recommendations, Annual Governance Statement, and Peer Review Report.

It was proposed by Councillor Morgan and seconded by Councillor Jackman that the plan be noted.

RESOLVED

That the plan be noted.

Report to follow

The Audit Manager introduced the item to the Committee. The discussion included the following points:

·       Changes to audit standards going forwards

·       Audit Scrutiny Committee will be strengthened

·       Both TDC and DAP Audit work will work with these new standards

·       Teignbridge are already compliant with the new principles, and the audit department have a new Officer starting soon who will aid in implementing the standards

·       DAP are a larger organisation with a computerised system and so will manage with implementation of the new standards

·       New Audit Officer will be involved in FOI work

It was proposed by Councillor Morgan  and seconded by Councillor Jackman that the report be noted.

RESOLVED

That the report be noted.

It was noted that there had only been one waiver since the previous Committee.

It was proposed by Councillor Morgan and seconded by Councillor Jackman that the waiver in the report be noted.

RESOLVED

That the Financial Instructions and Contract Rules Waiver be noted.

Verbal Update

The Head of Neighbourhood advised the Committee on the work that had been undertaken to recover the Penalty Notice fees. The discussion included the following points:

·       The Parking Manager has final say on cancelling tickets

·       An explanation of the appeals process

·       PCNs are being fed through to the bailiffs

·       There are over 3000 tickets to process

·       There is approximately £166,000 to claim back

·       If all tickets had been paid correctly it would amount to £16,000 in revenue

·       The earliest PCNs are being pursued first

·       113 tickets issued since April 1

·       The Audit Chair will be kept up to date with the ongoing parking audit

·       Enforcement must be smart and efficient due to small team

·       A new app could be looked into if Ringo is unpopular