Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee — Paper 4

24 Novem­ber 2023

Page 1 of 2

For decision

Title: Intern­al Audit Report Man­age­ment Action Fol­low up ²⁰²²⁄₂₃

Cov­er paper pre­pared by: Louise Allen, Head of Fin­ance and Cor­por­ate Operations

Annex pre­pared by: Eliza­beth Young, Chief Intern­al Aud­it­or; Stephanie Hume, Seni­or Audit Man­ager, Azets

Pur­pose

This paper presents the intern­al aud­it­ors’ inde­pend­ent over­view of man­age­ment action taken on pre­vi­ous intern­al audit recom­mend­a­tions raised and agreed. The fol­low-up review work repor­ted here is part of the intern­al audit pro­gramme agreed for ²⁰²²⁄₂₃.

Recom­mend­a­tions

The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee is asked to:

a) note the pro­gress made by man­age­ment in imple­ment­ing agreed man­age­ment actions; and b) note the revised due dates attrib­uted to actions that remain outstanding.

Exec­ut­ive summary

1. Azets, the Park Authority’s Intern­al Aud­it­ors, have under­taken a fol­low-up review of action taken to address pre­vi­ous audit recom­mend­a­tions raised and agreed by the Com­mit­tee, to provide the Audit & Risk Com­mit­tee with assur­ance that man­age­ment actions agreed in pre­vi­ous intern­al audit reports have been imple­men­ted appro­pri­ately. The report of their fol­low-up review is provided in full at the Annex to this paper. The report sum­mar­ises the pro­gress made by man­age­ment in imple­ment­ing agreed man­age­ment actions.

2. Azets have reviewed all open man­age­ment actions and liaised with Cairngorm Nation­al Park Author­ity staff to obtain an update on their imple­ment­a­tion pro­gress. This included man­age­ment identi­fy­ing actions which were no longer applic­able. For recom­mend­a­tions graded pri­or­ity 3 or above, Azets request evid­ence to val­id­ate com­ple­tion of any actions marked for clos­ure by man­age­ment. The pro­ject man­age­ment approach and respons­ib­il­it­ies should be con­sidered and identified.

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Page 2 of 2

1. The fol­low-up review presen­ted by Azets shows that, since the last fol­low-up report provided in May, the teams across the Park Author­ity have made pro­gress in resolv­ing a num­ber of out­stand­ing issues, with 11 of the 35 open actions brought for­ward being closed.

2. In addi­tion, 3 actions con­sidered no longer applic­able have been closed by the Aud­it­or, and a fur­ther 20 actions have been assessed as par­tially complete.

Con­clu­sion

1. It is recog­nised that fur­ther work is required to clear the remain­ing recom­mend­a­tions brought for­ward from pre­vi­ous years. How­ever, a report of pro­gress against each of the out­stand­ing items has been provided, and this cla­ri­fies the work remain­ing to be done.

2. Tar­get dates for com­ple­tion have been reviewed and revised, as reques­ted by the Committee.

Louise Allen louiseallen@​cairngorms.​co.​uk