CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Audit & Risk Com­mit­tee Paper 1 03/02/21

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY AUDIT & RISK COMMITTEE

FOR DECISION

Title: INTERN­AL AUDIT REVIEW: COR­POR­ATE GOVERNANCE

Pre­pared by: CHRIS BROWN, AZETS STEPHANIE HUME, AZETS

Pur­pose

This paper presents Azets’ intern­al audit review of the Authority’s Cor­por­ate Gov­ernance sys­tems and controls.

Recom­mend­a­tions

The Audit & Risk Com­mit­tee is asked to:

a) Con­sider the intern­al auditor’s find­ings on the Cor­por­ate Gov­ernance sys­tems and con­trols; b) Endorse the man­age­ment responses to recom­mend­a­tions for action raised by the intern­al auditor.

Exec­ut­ive Summary

1. The Park Authority’s intern­al aud­it­ors, Azets, have under­taken a review of the Authority’s Cor­por­ate Gov­ernance sys­tems and con­trols as part of the agreed ²⁰²⁰⁄₂₁ intern­al audit plan. The full report of the review is attached at Annex I to this paper.

2. The report con­siders five areas of con­trol assess­ment, with two of these five areas graded as ​“green”, con­trol object­ive achieved; two graded as ​“yel­low”, con­trol object­ive achieved with no major weak­nesses and with scope for improve­ment; and two graded ​“amber”, where con­trol object­ives are assessed as not being achieved and con­trols are not in place or ineffective.

3. Six recom­mend­a­tions for action are raised, with one advis­ory point also high­lighted. All are on the design of the con­trol sys­tems rather than imple­ment­a­tion of con­trols. Four recom­mend­a­tions are at Grade 2, where there is assessed to be mod­er­ate risk expos­ure and con­trols are not work­ing as effect­ively and effi­ciently and may cre­ate mod­er­ate organ­isa­tion­al risk. Two recom­mend­a­tions are at Grade 3, indic­at­ing a high risk of expos­ure through the absence or fail­ure of key con­trols that cre­ate sig­ni­fic­ant risks with­in the organisation.

4. All recom­mend­a­tions have been accep­ted by man­age­ment with responses set out in the report, includ­ing respons­ib­il­it­ies and timetables for imple­ment­ing improve­ment actions.

Dav­id Cameron 26 Janu­ary 2021 davidcameron@​cairngorms.​co.​uk