September 2013 - Bron Afon

covered later in the Committee papers.
COMMITTEE QUESTIONS AND DISCUSSION
Referring to some of the internal audit reports to be
discussed later, it was queried whether there is an issue
with what appears to be incomplete record keeping, jobs not
seen through to correct completion and a lack of checks to
ensure that things are being done and recorded in the
correct manner - it was difficult to have confidence in
systems that appeared not to have sufficient close oversight.
The Chair explained that the report was a balanced
overview of what is seen over the course of a year, that
things will be found to be incorrect and that steps will be
taken to address those issues.
The Chief Executive said that checking had to be done on a
sample basis as it was impossible, without additional costly
resource, to physically check that every person had done
everything they should have done when they should have
done it.
The Chair asked the Internal Auditors for their respective
opinions.
Clive (TIAA) expressed the opinion that there had been a
vast improvement since Transfer and Nigel (BSS) pointed to
the levels of assurance gained in audit reviews.
The Committee considered whether or not we do enough to
see things through to a satisfactory conclusion, stating that
the start and middle of any task seemed to be good, but that
we might be failing at the end.
The Director of Property said that we, like other
organisations, do rely on self certification by our contractors
and we undertake spot checks of both the contractors and
our own staff and, where necessary, consider applying the
Capability Policy where the latter is found to require it. There
were implications, in relation to contractors, of moving from
the status of an expert client to an interfering client, the
former being where the contractor is responsible for risks
and the latter where we become responsible for risks.
The Chief Executive informed The Committee it was
recognised that we cannot completely remove risk so, like
all organisations, we have a risk management structure in
place to mitigate, as far as possible, risks. We identify risks,
rate them and apply Executive and management resource to
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