CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Audit & Risk Com­mit­tee Paper 4 — 30/09/22

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY AUDIT & RISK COMMITTEE

FOR DECISION

Title: INTERN­AL AUDIT: LEAD­ER PROGRAMME

Cov­er Paper Pre­pared by: DAV­ID CAMER­ON, DEPUTY CHIEF EXEC­UT­IVE AND DIR­ECT­OR OF COR­POR­ATE SERVICES

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

Pur­pose

This paper presents the review of the Cairngorms NPA’s cov­er­age of respons­ib­il­it­ies as Account­able Body for the Cairngorms LEAD­ER Pro­gramme as estab­lished in the Ser­vice Level Agree­ment estab­lished with Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment. The review has been under­taken as part of the agreed Intern­al Audit Plan for ²⁰²²⁄₂₃.

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 for deliv­er­ing the respons­ib­il­it­ies of the Cairngorms LEAD­ER Pro­gramme Account­able Body as estab­lished by the Ser­vice Level Agree­ment with Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment. The intern­al audit report is presen­ted in full at Annex I to this paper.

2. Two recom­mend­a­tions for improve­ment actions are raised, both 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. One recom­mend­a­tion is assessed to have a mod­er­ate level risk expos­ure. The second recom­mend­a­tion is assessed to carry a lim­ited risk expos­ure where con­trols are already in place and work­ing effect­ively although could be strengthened.

3. Of the five areas of con­trol assess­ment covered by the review, two areas are assessed as hav­ing the con­trol object­ive achieved with cov­er­age by adequate, effect­ive and effi­cient con­trols. The remain­ing three con­trol areas are iden­ti­fied as hav­ing their con­trol object­ives achieved while with scope for improvement.

Dav­id Cameron 20 Septem­ber 2022 davidcameron@​cairngorms.​co.​uk