Council’s auditing service on the brink

DUMFRIES and Galloway Council is to bring in outside experts to carry out an independent review of its internal audit team – after warnings that the service is on the verge of collapse.

The issue was rushed onto the agenda of last week’s audit, risk and scrutiny committee meeting as an urgent item, with council governance officer Vlad Valiente issuing a warning to councillors.

He explained that the internal audit team – the people responsible for checking the council is spending public money properly and managing risk – is so stretched that if key staff left, there would be nobody left to do the job.

Mr Valiente said: “We are at real risk in terms of current capacity within the internal audit function in which we have absolute no resilience or succession management as we currently stand, and I think that’s a significant risk to this council.”

The committee agreed to commission an external quality assessment from the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors – an independent body that will examine how the team is currently operating and what needs to change.

Nith Councillor Malcolm Johnstone, a former deputy council leader, insisted that the committee should have been consulted on the review much sooner.

He said: “We’re now two years down the road when a lot of this stuff was pointed out then and nothing has happened. So why are we needing to go through another review when the one from two years ago hasn’t been followed up?”

Mr Valiente responded: “There’s no doubt that that internal audit review was delayed 100 per cent. I can only apologise for the delay but I am keen to progress this.”

The committee agreed to move forward, with the independent review expected to be completed by autumn this year and findings brought back to councillors at that point.