Wiltshire Council slated over IT safeguards

A report by auditors KPMG has identified what it called 'significant gaps in the control environment' of the council's computing systems.

In a report for next Wednesday's Audit Committee they say: "We consider that your organisational controls are generally effective overall. However, there are significant issues identified in the General IT controls over the Authority's financial system (SAP) and the Revenue and Benefits system (Northgate)."

The council has a history of weakness in this area which has been picked up by previous reports. Progress was being made in putting things right, but then 'staffing changes' meant the council went backwards instead of forwards.

KPMG are charging the council extra because of the work they had to do attempting to unravel the mess. They go on to say: "Due to the sensitive nature of these issues, we have issued a separate report to management detailing the full impact of the IT failures."

"We have therefore been unable to rely on the Authority's IT environment during the year. As a result, we had to undertake specific additional substantive procedures and lower the testing and sensitivity thresholds applied throughout our final audit visit. Consequently, we will be agreeing an additional charge with management to cover the cost of this additional work."

For the full report see Audit Committee agenda item 7