Minutes of Senior Management Team Meeting held on 16 April 2019
In attendance: K Donnelly, Chair (C&AG), P McCreedy (COO), R Allen (Director), C Kane (Director), L Donnelly (Secretary)
Apologies: T Wilkinson (Director), N Gray (Director) D Lynn (Director)
1& 2 Minutes of Previous meeting and Matters Arising
Minutes of the previous meeting held on 19 March 2019 were agreed and matters arising updated.
3. Risk Management - Corporate Risk Register (CRR)
C Kane reported the Corporate Risk Register Working Group (CRRWG) met on 26 March 2019. Changes proposed to the CRR were highlighted in red for members’ convenience, the changes made have no impact on the risk ratings. CRRWG considered the impact of the Brexit risks previously discussed and these were now reflected in the CRR along with a further breakdown of the Business Transformation Project (BTP) into Project Initiation Documents (PIDs).
SMT agreed the risks as presented and agreed that subject to some rationalisation around the extent of detail on PIDs that the CRR will be considered by the Audit and Risk Committee (ARAC) at their meeting scheduled for 7 May 2019.
4. Finance – Finance Report
· Budget
Members noted the projected year end position for 2018-19. Members were advised that the C&AG intends to correspond with the Department of Finance (DoF) and the Secretary of State with regard to the budget allocated to NIAO for 2019-20 and the impact also on subsequent years.
· Accommodation Project
The pre-qualification questionnaire stage to procure the accommodation design team has begun and 12 bids have been received. Successful bidders will be invited to tender by the end of June 2019. A design team is expected to be appointed by October/November 2019.
· Premises
SMT discussed a request to lease spare capacity within our office building. The lease will be short term to facilitate a decant by another public body. Members discussed the operational implications and approved the request subject to the new tenants agreeing to short term leasing conditions specified in the lease.
· IT
An IT health check has been completed and the findings reported to SMT. Any outstanding issues are being addressed by Corporate Services and the service providers.
5.Corporate – Corporate Report
· HR and Business Support Attendance Management – SMT noted the increase in the long term sickness absence figures and the impact on the overall days lost in 2018-19. Members welcomed the decrease in short term sickness absence and the high numbers of staff with no sickness absence days at all in the past year.
· Data Breach – An internal investigation has been completed and the Office is content that settings are now accurate and appropriate and going forward any future software upgrades will prompt a control check on permissions, in addition relevant staff will be attending training to develop a better understanding of the administration of the system. The Information Commissioners Office has confirmed that no further action will be taken by them.
· Miscellaneous – SMT were updated on the recent positive feedback received from hosting HR representatives from the UK Audit Bodies on 15 March 2019 and advised that representatives from the UK Audit Bodies Comms Teams would be meeting at NIAO in May.
· Office Conference – Members reflected on the successful conference held on 12 April and the positive feedback already received from many staff. A formal post conference evaluation will be conducted to report to SMT in due course.
6. Internal Audit Reports
Members noted the two final reports have been received and assessments of “satisfactory” provided. It was agreed these two reports will join the three others received earlier in the year (all with “satisfactory” ratings) to be considered at the ARAC meeting scheduled for 7 May 2019.
7. Advisory Board/ARAC Terms of Reference
SMT discussed and approved the ARAC and Advisory Board Terms of Reference (ToR). These will be considered at ARAC on 7 May 2019. The C&AG advised that the Non-Executive Directors have appointed N Hyndman as the Chair to the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee.
8. Data Analytics - GovTech update
Members were advised that work on phase one commences on 29 April and will last for twelve weeks. It has been agreed with DoF that funding for Phase 1 will be reflected in our 2019-20 Opening Monitoring position and DoF will hold the additional funding for Phase 2 until it is required.
9. AOB
Date of next meeting 21 May 2019. The agenda will major on the Business Transformation
Programme (BTP).