Minutes

Minutes of the Audit Panel of the Metropolitan Police Authority held on 19 September 2001 in Room AG04, Romney House, Westminster, London.

Present

Members

• Sir John Quinton (Chair)
• Eric Ollerenshaw (Deputy Chair)
• Elizabeth Howlett
• R. David Muir

MPA officers

• Peter Martin (Treasurer)
• Ken Hunt (Deputy Treasurer)
• Peter Tickner (Director of Internal Audit)
• John Crompton (Secretariat)

MPS officers

• Keith Luck (Director of Resources)

1. Apologies

(Agenda item 1)

An apology was received from John Biggs.

The Chair welcomed R. David Muir to his first meeting of the Audit Panel.

2. Minutes of the meeting of the Audit Panel held on 25 June 2001

(Agenda item 2)

Resolved – That the minutes of the meeting of the Audit Panel meeting held on 25 June 2001 be agreed as a correct record.

3. Chairs and members update

(Agenda item 3)

No reports were given.

4. Draft MPA accounts for period ended 31 March 2001

(Agenda item 4)

The Authority's first set of accounts for the nine month period to 31 March 2001were submitted in draft form for comment and scrutiny before being submitted to the Finance, Planning and Best Value Committee for adoption

In introducing the report the Treasurer stated that the accounts would be included in the agenda for the meeting of the Finance, Planning and Best Value Committee on 4 October and as the agenda was published a week in advance of the meeting they would have been published and circulated by the 30 September deadline and the District Auditor had confirmed that this was acceptable. It was anticipated that the District Auditor' s opinion on the accounts would be received in December. The Treasurer reminded the Panel that these were the first accounts the Finance Department had been required to produce under the accruals accounting regime and their timely publication was a considerable achievement for the Department.

The Chair agreed that the fact that it had been possible to produce the accounts within the timescale was a credit to all those concerned. He drew attention to a few minor drafting changes which could be made in the final version and commented that for the sake of clarity it would have been preferable at this stage if each page had been headed "draft".

The Panel noted that there were several sections of text which would be expanded or made more self-explanatory. The Treasurer said that among the changes he would be making to the document prior to its consideration by FPBV would be a new item in the Accounting Policy section on Insurable Risks. The foreword would be expanded to include a section setting the background to the publication of the accounts and a note about the PFI schemes which had been approved during the year.

Resolved – That

1. subject to changes to the supporting text the draft accounts be forwarded to the Finance, Planning and Best Value Committee for approval at its meeting on 4 October.
2. the Panel records its appreciation of the work of the MPS Finance Department which had enabled this Authority's first set of accounts to be published in accordance with the statutory timetable.

5. Review of recruitment and retention difficulties in the Internal Audit Directorate

(Agenda item 5)

In introducing the report the Treasurer stressed that not all of the recommendations made by Cornwell Affiliates were being recommended for adoption.

The Director of Resources stated that at the last Finance, Planning and Best Value Committee he had reported the concerns of the MPS Management Board concerning MPA salary levels. Although all civil staff were technically employed by the MPA the Authority staff were placed on the upper quartile of public sector pay whilst the rest of the civilian staff salary structure was based on the lower quartile and was only just aspiring to the median. The internal audit salaries should be comparable to those in the Finance Department.

The Director of Internal Audit explained that there were severe recruitment problems especially in the area of forensic audit work. Traditionally these posts had often been filled by retired police officers and the salary levels have substantially lagged behind those of systems auditors. The Hay evaluations demonstrate that forensic audit and systems audit work is of similar weight. To assimilate the forensic posts into the new ranges would mean an increase in salary of 15% rather than the proposed general increase of 5%. The same percentage increases would apply to a very small number of other posts and the high vacancy levels meant that very few individuals were actually in post to receive the increase.

Eric Ollerenshaw said that in view of the sums involved it would be preferable for the report to be considered by the Finance, Planning and Best Value Committee in the context of the overall budgetary position.

The Panel agreed that the present recruitment and retention situation needed to be addressed and broadly supported the recommendations of the Treasurer. The Panel felt that it would be more appropriate for the final decisions to be made by the Finance, Planning and Best Value Committee in the context of the overall budgetary position.

Resolved –That the report be deferred for consideration by the Finance, Planning and Best Value Committee at its meeting on 4 October.

6. Internal Audit progress report

(Agenda item 6)

A report was submitted which summarised the current position regarding progress against the 2002/02 audit plan. The report recommended some amendments to the review programme in the light of new factors.

Resolved – That the systems reviews of the performance management framework, vehicle equipping and vehicle provision and disposal be postponed.

The meeting ended at 3.00 p.m.

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