CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Audit & Risk Com­mit­tee Paper 2 11/02/22

FOR DECISION

Title: INTERN­AL AUDIT: FIN­AN­CIAL MAN­AGE­MENT AND REPORTING

Cov­er Paper Pre­pared by: DAV­ID CAMER­ON, DIR­ECT­OR OF COR­POR­ATE SERVICES

Report Sub­mit­ted by: ELIZA­BETH YOUNG, AZETS; STEPHANIE HUME, AZETS

Pur­pose

This paper presents the review of the Cairngorms NPA’s approaches and con­trols in place for our fin­an­cial man­age­ment and report­ing. The review has been under­taken as part of the agreed Intern­al Audit Plan for ²⁰²¹⁄₂₂.

Recom­mend­a­tions

The Audit & Risk Com­mit­tee is asked to:

a) Con­sider the intern­al aud­it­ors report and find­ings; b) Endorse the man­age­ment responses to recom­mend­a­tions for future action and sys­tem improvements.

Exec­ut­ive Summary

1. Azets have under­taken a review of the Authority’s arrange­ments and intern­al con­trols for fin­an­cial man­age­ment and report­ing. The intern­al audit report is presen­ted in full at Annex I to this paper.

2. Three recom­mend­a­tions for improve­ment actions are raised, all of which have been accep­ted by man­age­ment. Responses to recom­mend­a­tions out­lining future action to be taken, officers respons­ible and timetable for action have been set out in the report at Annex I. All recom­mend­a­tions are assessed to have mod­er­ate risk exposure.

3. Of the four areas of con­trol assess­ment covered by the review, two are iden­ti­fied as hav­ing their con­trol object­ives achieved while with scope for improve­ment. The remain­ing two con­trol object­ives are assessed as achieved with adequate con­trols in place.

Dav­id Camer­on, 3 Feb­ru­ary 2022 davidcameron@​cairngorms.​co.​uk