Please see the below for an update from the Internal Audit Forum – ESALC encourages all member councils to use suitably qualified internal auditors.
Local audit
In our capacity as the secretariat of the Joint Panel on Accountability and Governance, we recently sought expressions of interest to undertake some work on the practitioner’s guide. We have now appointed the internal auditor’s forum to identify potential changes to the guide to clarify and strengthen the important role of internal auditors in the work of local councils, with the updated guide due to be published in the next few months.
We have now completed this work and the updated Practitioners Guide 2021 includes a re-write of Section 4 (Internal Audit).
We were also commissioned to review and update Section 5 of the Practitioners Guide (supporting information and examples) and completed this work in time for the updated version which was published in March 2022.
Our aim is to extend our network of Internal Auditor voices across the Country and we would very much like to invite you to join us so the debate and dialogue can be widened.
For your interest I have summarised below the way the IAF has evolved.
An informal group of Internal Auditors met in 2018 to discuss the feedback from the External Auditor on the conclusion of audit results and how best to ensure that these were channelled back to the Clerks and RFO’s so that good practice and compliance with legislation and regulations could be improved.
Since then, we have established the IAF and continue to increase our membership. We now have a wider network of Internal Auditors and other interested parties which strive to promote continuous internal audit improvement in the Sector.
We are now engaging with the NALC’s Joint Practitioners Audit Group, SLCC, External Audit, Training Organisations and representative of the CALC County Officers Forum.
The Internal Auditor Forum consists of 100 professionally members including qualified Chartered and Management Accountants plus Licenced and Chartered Internal Auditors, CALC County Officers.
Although some of us are competitors we agree that we want good governance and transparency across the Local Council Sector.
Please also see a link to our new website that provides more information on our purpose and values.