Minutes of the Audit and Risk Committee – September 2022

Committee

Minutes of the Extraordinary Meeting for the Approval and Signing of the COPFS Accounts 2021- 22

Held on Wednesday, 14 September 2022 at 1230 hours (via Microsoft Teams)

Members

• Robert Tinlin - Non-Executive Director (Chair)
• David Watt - Non-Executive Director
• Vanessa Davies - Non-Executive Director

In attendance

• David Harvie - Crown Agent, Chief Executive and COPFS Accountable Officer
• Keith Dargie - COPFS Chief Digital Officer and Head of Business Services
• Marlene Anderson - COPFS Director of Finance and Procurement
• Jim Montgomery - Audit Manager, SG Internal Audit Directorate
• William Wilkie - Senior Auditor, SG Internal Audit Directorate
• Gillian Woolman - Audit Director, Audit Scotland
• Esther Scoburgh - Senior Audit Manager, Audit Scotland
• Nikolaos Koutris - COPFS Head of Financial Accounting and Systems
• Ian Palmer - COPFS Secretariat

Apologies

• Robert Sandeman - KLTR Accountable Officer
• Sharon Davies - COPFS Head of Management Accounting and Planning

The Chair welcomed the group.

There were no declarations of interest.

RT (Chair) apologised for the delay in issuing the meeting pack to the group. This had been to facilitate the inclusion of the latest financial information.

The minute of the ARC Meeting held on 24 August 2022 were approved with the following amendment:

Section 5 “audit methodologies” to be deleted and replaced with “the audit”.

MA presented ARC Papers 39A and 39B (2022)

MA gave an overview of the COPFS Annual Accounts 2021-22.

Changes to the draft version were highlighted in yellow. Further to that, a minor typographical error was identified and has been corrected in the version for signing.

General discussion followed.

COPFS Letter of Representation was approved and a finalised version to be presented for signing.

GW presented the draft of ARC Paper 40 (2022)

Given that the draft report has undergone a number of iterations over recent days to
reflect ongoing developments, there are final modifications to be incorporated, a response to be submitted from management in relation to Recommendation 1 and the factual accuracy of some of the content to be confirmed.

The Audit is complete and has been conducted in compliance with the International Standard on Auditing.

The meeting confirmed that no instances of fraud or other irregularities had been identified subsequent to the compilation of the draft report.

GW then gave an overview of the draft report and general discussion followed.

GW thanked all parties involved for the support and cooperation received throughout the audit process.

The Committee received and noted the Audit Report, acknowledging the modifications still to be made.

Subject to the inclusion of proposed updates and amendments, the Committee approved and recommended the signing of the COPFS Annual Accounts for 2021-2022.

The committee noted that the 6-year tenure of the current Audit Scotland team responsible for the auditing of COPFS and Q/KLTR is coming to an end. This will be the last formal meeting of ARC attended by GW and ES.

It was also noted that this will be the last meeting of the group attended by DH (CA)
before his departure to another role outwith COPFS.

On behalf of the group, RT (Chair) thanked GW, ES and DH for their valuable contribution to the work of the Committee and wished them well in their future endeavours.

ARC will next meet on 23 November 2022 at 11am via MS Teams