Issue - meetings

The purpose of this report is to seek approval to procure internal audit services from Southern Internal Audit Partnership for a period of 4 years from 1 April 2019 based on the evaluation of options by the East Surrey Internal Audit Consortium.

The Committee agreed to:

(1)            The Council entering into a partnership arrangement with Southern Internal Audit Partnership

(2)            Give delegated authority to the Head of Corporate Governance in conjunction with the Chief Finance Officer to finalise the arrangements.

The Committee was asked to consider the procurement of internal audit services from Southern Internal Audit Partnership for a period of 4 years from 1 April 2019. 

The report outlined the arrangements with the existing provider (RSM), who were contracted to provide services through the East Surrey Internal Audit Consortium, and the contract was due to expire on 31 March 2019 

The Consortium had met several times to discuss the possibilities going forward, and had identified three options; procurement through a full Official Journal of the European Union; use of established frameworks or to join an existing shared service.

An evaluation had been prepared outlining the strengths, weaknesses, price, quality and risks of all the options and presented to Committee in restricted Annex 1 to the report. 

Having considered all the options the Consortium unanimously agreed that the best option was to join an existing shared service through the Southern Internal Audit Partnership, who provided services to a range of organisations including the Police.  Their proposed day rates were competitive against the rates charged by the Consortium based on the 2018/19 rates.

Accordingly, the Committee agreed to:

(1)            The Council entering into a partnership arrangement with Southern Internal Audit Partnership

(2)            Give delegated authority to the Head of Corporate Governance in conjunction with the Chief Finance Officer to finalise the arrangements.