Paper 3 Audit and Risk Committee

21 June 2024

Page 1 of 2

For Decision

Title: Intern­al Audit Annu­al Report ²⁰²³⁄₂₄

Pre­pared by:

• Cov­er Paper: Louise Allen, Head of Fin­ance and Cor­por­ate Operations
• Paper: Eliza­beth Young, Chief Intern­al Auditor

Pur­pose

This paper sum­mar­ises the con­clu­sions and key find­ings from the intern­al audit work under­taken at Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity dur­ing the year ended 31 March 2024, includ­ing the Intern­al Auditor’s over­all opin­ion on Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority’s intern­al con­trol system.

Recom­mend­a­tions

The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee is asked to:

a) Con­sider the Intern­al Aud­it­ors annu­al report for ²⁰²³⁄₂₄; b) Note the Intern­al Audit annu­al opin­ion as set out in page three of the report and endorse the inclu­sion of that opin­ion with­in the Gov­ernance State­ment for ²⁰²³⁄₂₄.

Exec­ut­ive Summary

1. As the Intern­al Aud­it­or of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity, Azets are required to provide the Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee annu­ally with assur­ance on the whole sys­tem of intern­al con­trol. Azets Intern­al Audit Annu­al Report for ²⁰²³⁄₂₄ includes their over­all opin­ion that:

   Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity has a frame­work of gov­ernance, risk man­age­ment and con­trols that provides reas­on­able assur­ance regard­ing the effect­ive and effi­cient achieve­ment of object­ives, except in rela­tion to pro­cure­ment. Our work in this area found a num­ber of sig­ni­fic­ant weak­nesses in the con­trol frame­work in place and poten­tial non-com­pli­ance with pro­cure­ment legislation.

   The full Intern­al Audit Annu­al Report provid­ing wider con­text on this over­all intern­al audit opin­ion is provided in full.

Page 2 of 2

1. Action planned to resolve the issues raised by the Aud­it­or is set out in the Pro­cure­ment Action Plan (Paper 5).

2. The Intern­al Auditor’s opin­ion is typ­ic­ally included as part of the Gov­ernance State­ment, form­ing part of the Park Authority’s Annu­al Report and Accounts. The draft Gov­ernance State­ment was con­sidered by the Com­mit­tee at its meet­ing on 19 April 2024. The Com­mit­tee is asked to endorse the inclu­sion of the Intern­al Auditor’s opin­ion as part of the Gov­ernance State­ment. It is pro­posed that the actions planned to address the Auditor’s recom­mend­a­tions for improve­ment of the Authority’s pro­cure­ment pro­cesses also be included in the Gov­ernance Statement.

Louise Allen Head of Fin­ance and Cor­por­ate Oper­a­tions June 2024