The Committee considered the report of the Chief Executive setting out the draft Annual Governance Statement 2009/10 to be signed by the Chief Executive and the Leader of the Council and included in the Statement of Accounts.  It was noted that the combined Statements would be submitted to the Committee for approval on 21 June 2010.

The Head of Internal Audit Partnership advised the Committee that there was an inconsistency between paragraph 5.2 (a) of the Annual Governance Statement and the Internal Audit Annual Report 2009/10.  In paragraph 5.2 (a) of the Annual Governance Statement, it stated that two areas of audit work with a level of assurance lower than substantial were outstanding at March 2010 (IT Disaster Recovery and the Business Transformation Programme).  However, two other areas required further work in 2010/11 (Members’ and Mayor’s Allowances and Expenses and Contract Procedure Rules – Compliance).  The review of Members’ and Mayor’s Allowances and Expenses had been about regularity and making sure processes were in place, and was not a strategic issue, but the review of compliance with the Contract Procedure Rules was more of a corporate issue and, to be consistent, it should be referred to in the Annual Governance Statement.

The Committee asked a number of questions of the Officers and the representatives of the Audit Commission relating to, inter alia, the effectiveness of the system of internal audit; the availability of minutes of meetings of the Officer Working Group set up to review and monitor corporate governance issues; the management of systemic risk; the new performance management system which would be implemented for the first quarterly reporting cycle of 2010/11 and would bring improved data analysis and links to the monitoring of the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP), the Strategic Risk Register and the Sustainable Community Strategy; the effectiveness of partnerships, including the LSP, and the controls in place to ensure that targets were achieved; the consistency of reporting arrangements across the Mid-Kent Improvement Partnership; and the role of the Overview and Scrutiny Committees.

Arising from the discussion on the Annual Governance Statement, the representatives of the Audit Commission confirmed that they were satisfied with the quality and standard of the internal audit work undertaken during the year. 

Having considered the replies to its questions, the Committee:-

RESOLVED:  That the Annual Governance Statement for 2009/10, as amended by the Head of Internal Audit Partnership, be endorsed for inclusion in the Statement of Accounts.