Minutes of Meeting

Audit, Risk and Improvement Committee Meeting

Venue	Conference Room, Station Street, Mullumbimby
Date	Thursday, 29 August 2019
Time	11.30am

BYRON SHIRE COUNCIL

Audit, Risk and Improvement Committee Meeting Minutes      29 August 2019

Minutes of the Audit, Risk and Improvement Committee Meeting held on Thursday, 29 August 2019

File No: I2019/1289

PRESENT:   Cr M Lyon, Cr A Hunter

Staff:   Mark Arnold (General Manager)

            Vanessa Adams (Director Corporate and Community Services)
Anna Vinfield (Manager Corporate)
James Brickley (Manager Finance)

            Heather Sills (Corporate Governance Officer)

            Phil Pountney (Manager Business Systems and Technology) – item 5.3

Community: Michael Georghiou (Chairperson), Brian Wilkinson, Rae Wills

Internal Auditor: Cathy Blunt (O’Connor Marsden)

External Auditors:  Kevin Franey (TNR) – items 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, and 4.4

                                                    Gearoid Fitzgerald (NSW Audit Office) – items 4.1, 4.2, and 4.3

Michael Georghiou (Chair) opened the meeting at 11:01am and acknowledged that the meeting was being held on Bundjalung Country.

Apologies:

Cr B Cameron.

Declarations of Interest – Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary

There were no declarations of interest.

Adoption of Minutes from Previous Meetings

Committee Recommendation:

That the minutes of the Audit, Risk and Improvement Committee Meeting held on 30 May 2019 be confirmed.                                                                                                                             (Georghiou/Wilkinson)

The recommendation was put to the vote and declared carried.

Note: The minutes of the meeting held on 30 May 2019 were noted, and the Committee Recommendations adopted by Council, at the Ordinary Meeting held on 27 June 2019.

Business Arising from Previous Minutes

There was no business arising from previous minutes.

Staff Reports - Corporate and Community Services

Report No. 4.1             New Accounting Standards 2018-2019 financial year

File No:                        I2019/1255

Committee Recommendation:

That the Audit Risk and Improvement Committee recommends to Council:

1.       That the report on new applicable accounting standards for the 2018-2019 financial year be noted.

2.       That the detail outlined on the report under the heading ‘Australian Accounting Standard (AASB 9) Financial Instruments’ be adopted by Council as its policy for disclosure in financial statements commencing from the 30 June 2019 financial year. (Georghiou/Wilkinson)

The recommendation was put to the vote and declared carried.

Report No. 4.2             Additional Audit, Risk and Improvement Committee Meeting

File No:                        I2019/1260

Committee Recommendation:

That an additional Audit, Risk and Improvement Committee meeting be held at 11:30am on 14 November 2019. (Georghiou/Wills)

The recommendation was put to the vote and declared carried.

Report No. 4.3             2018-2019 Financial Statements - Accounting for Crown Land

File No:                        I2019/1263

Committee Recommendation:

That the Audit Risk and Improvement Committee recommends to Council:

1.       That the report on accounting for Crown Land related to the 2018-2019 Financial Statements year be noted.

2.       That the position paper on Crown Land Assets (#E2019/61507) be adopted and included as part of Council’s 2018-2019 Financial Statement working papers to address the NSW Audit Office Audit Engagement Plan requirement. (Georghiou/Lyon)

The recommendation was put to the vote and declared carried.

Report No. 4.4             Business Continuity Management - update and next steps

File No:                        I2019/1282

Committee Recommendation:

That the Audit, Risk and Improvement Committee notes this Business Continuity Management update and next steps. (Georghiou/Wilkinson)

The recommendation was put to the vote and declared carried.

Confidential Reports - Corporate and Community Services

Procedural Motion

Committee Recommendation:

1.       That pursuant to Section 10A(2)(d)i of the Local Government Act, 1993, the Committee resolves to move into Confidential Session.

2.       That the reasons for closing the meeting to the public to consider this item be that on balance it is considered that receipt and discussion of the matters in an open meeting would be contrary to the public interest.                                                                                                          (Georghiou/Hunter)

The recommendation was put to the vote and declared carried.

Report No. 5.1             Confidential - Customer Request Management Audit Review

File No:                        I2019/1077

Committee Recommendation:

1.       That the Audit, Risk and Improvement Committee notes the Customer Request Management audit review report.

2.       That the Audit, Risk and Improvement Committee requests management to implement the recommendations made in the report identified as Confidential Attachment 1 (#E2019/44485).

3.       That the report and Confidential Attachment 1 of the closed part of the meeting remain confidential. (Georghiou/Hunter)

The recommendation was put to the vote and declared carried.

Report No. 5.2             Confidential - Audit Progress Report - August 2019

File No:                        I2019/1246

Committee Recommendation:

1.       That the Audit, Risk and Improvement Committee notes the Internal Audit Activity Report - August 2019 (#E2019/60622).

2.       That the Audit, Risk and Improvement Committee endorses the recommendation from the Executive Team to close off 19 outstanding recommendations in Appendix C of the attached report (#E2019/60622) due to these actions being confirmed as complete.

(Georghiou/Wilkinson)

The recommendation was put to the vote and declared carried.

Report No. 5.3             Confidential - Update on IT Actions

File No:                        I2019/1236

Committee Recommendation:

That the Audit, Risk and Improvement Committee notes the update provided in the report.

(Georghiou/Lyon)

The recommendation was put to the vote and declared carried.

Procedural Motion

Committee Recommendation:

That the meeting move out of confidential session.                                            (Georghiou/Wilkinson)

The recommendation was put to the vote and declared carried.

GENERAL BUSINESS

Council’s Director Corporate and Community Services advised the committee that she was pleased to announce that Byron Shire Council’s initiative “Risky Business: Refining Councils Fraud and Corruption Controls” had been awarded the Strategic Enterprise Risk Initiative for Rural/Regional Council award at the Statewide Risk Management Awards held recently.

There being no further business the meeting concluded at 12:48pm.