Minutes of Senior Management Team Meeting held on 8 May 2018
In attendance: K Donnelly, Chair (C&AG), P McCreedy (COO), r Allen (Director), N Gray (Director), C Kane (Director), D Lynn (Director), T Wilkinson (Director), L Donnelly (Secretary)
1&2 Minutes of Previous Meeting and Matters Arising
Minutes of the previous meeting held on 27 March 2018 were agreed subject to a minor amendment and matters arising were discussed and updated.
3 Risk Management
3.1 Corporate Risk Register (CRR)
A revised draft of the CRR with all updates highlighted in red was presented to SMT for consideration. The CRR has now been aligned to the Strategic Corporate Framework and risk appetites have been assigned to each risk, scores have not yet been added. SMT endorsed the draft CRR ahead of the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee (ARAC) meeting next week (17 May 2018).
3.2 Risk Management Annual Assurance Statements
The Assurance statement for 2017-18 reflecting a revised format and signed by all directors was presented and endorsed by SMT.
3.3 Business Continuity Plan
3.4 Crisis Management Plan The business continuity and crisis management plans have been updated to reflect the new SMT structure and made available to all staff on NIAOMi. SMT agreed the importance of these being reviewed at regular intervals and noted that future review should consider whether to continue with example scenarios documented within the crisis management plan or keep it more principles based.
4 Finance
4.1 Draft Annual Report and Accounts
The C&AG noted thanks to the team involved in the production of the Annual Report and Accounts. Some minor editorial points were noted by members and each member agreed to provide individual feedback to R Allen and R Ross.
4.2 Finance and IT Report
R Allen presented the finance report and noted the projected underspend for 2017-18 is £207k. C&AG indicated he was content with this, particularly in consideration of the various initiatives being undertaken in the latter part of the year. SMT noted the Main Estimate 2018-19 position which is to be summited to the Department of Finance by 18 May 2018.
4.3 Internal Audit Strategy
The revised Internal Audit Strategy for 2018-19 was noted by SMT with a request to bring forward the review of business continuity and defer the review of contracting out in light of work being undertaken currently to establish how best to procure the services and the associated timeline. The strategy will be considered by ARAC on 17 May 2018.
5. Annual Assurances
5.1 Hospitality
Members noted the data being collated for 2017-18 and that a final report will be available for consideration at the next SMT meeting on 12 June 2018.
5.2 ISQC1 and Transparency Report
SMT endorsed a proposal to complete a full monitoring report this year and then going forward a revised approach to report on a cyclical basis consistent with other audit institutions.
5.3 Impacts
SMT considered a paper summarising the financial impacts obtained for 2017-18 and agreed the amounts and decided which examples should proceed for quoting in the Annual Report.
6. Performance Reporting
6.1 Corporate Report
R Allen briefed members on corporate matters. SMT welcomed the positive position with absence management and positive feedback in relation to the Health and Wellbeing seminars and health checks. SMT agreed recommendations on further improvement of the staff performance management system.
6.2 Quarterly Performance Reports FA and PR
SMT noted a new report has been developed highlighting performance against key targets. The information was discussed and significant improvement was noted in the average costs of VFM studies. SMT also noted the high utilisation rates for various staff grades.
6.3 Office Conference Feedback
R Allen briefed members on the very positive feedback received about the office conference. The C&AG welcomed this and expressed thanks to all involved in helping to make the Conference a success. SMT expressed commitment for a further conference in the next 12-18 months. The feedback report is to be shared with all staff and will also be shared with the Office’s non-executives.
7. Information Management
7.1 GDPR Policy
SMT was advised that GDPR is progressing well and the relevant actions are on target. All staff were briefed recently by N Connelly at the staff briefing. A new draft Data Protection Policy and a draft Privacy Notice for the NIAO website were presented to SMT for consideration. SMT endorsed the documents.
7.2 Cyber Security Assessment
This review has confirmed a high level of compliance with good practice on cyber security and the assessment has identified some areas that require further action. An action plan has been put in place to improve and strengthen those areas. This was endorsed by SMT and agreed that the document should be presented to ARAC to provide assurance.
7.3 Procurement
A review of NIAO procurement of financial audit services was carried out by a consultant and the results were presented to SMT for consideration. SMT endorsed the recommendations with one exception and opted to progress with a one tier open tender procedure as opposed to a two tiered restrictive procedure.
In light of the associated complexities, SMT agreed to procurement of further assistance to support the delivery of this new revised financial audit procurement approach.
8. AOB
8.1 Next Meeting 12 June 2018.