Purpose

The Council seeks approval to agree Call-Off Contracts to access Internal Audit and Advisory Services from the Cross Council Assurance Service (CCAS) Framework Agreement procured by the London Borough of Barnet. Accessing the framework enables the Council to access expert external assurance and advisory services, access specialist capability (including digital, data, AI-enabled audit and analytics), shared learning and benchmarking – where required, to support existing in-house resource.

Decision

The Executive Director has AGREED to:

1. Approve for the Council to enter into an Access Agreement with the London Borough of Barnet to access the Open CCAS Framework Agreement for the provision of Internal Audit (Lot 1) and Advisory Services (Lot 2) until expiry or termination of the Open CCAS Framework Agreement.
2. Delegate the award of Call-off Contract and related Order Form(s) for the provision of Internal Audit services from Lot 1 of the CCAS Framework to approve (and monitor the spend) to the Head of Audit, Fraud and Risk Management up to the total cumulative value of £1,124,999 excluding VAT (£1,349,999 including VAT) in respect of all Order Forms to be approved from 1 July 2026 to 31 March 2029 with one or more of the appointed Lot 1 framework providers: Forvis Mazars (Company Registration: OC308299), KPMG (Company Registration: OC301540) and PwC (Company Registration: OC303525), following the Framework’s defined ordering process.
3. Delegate the award of Call-off Contract and related Order Form(s) for the provision of Advisory Services from Lot 2 of the CCAS Framework to approve (and monitor the spend) to the Head of Audit, Fraud and Risk Management up to the total cumulative value of £375,000 excluding VAT (£450,000 including VAT) in respect of all Order Forms to be approved from 1 July 2026 up to the 31 March 2029 with one or more of the appointed Lot 2 framework providers: Forvis Mazars (Company Registration: OC308299), KPMG (Company Registration: OC301540) and PwC (Company Registration: OC303525), following the Frameworks defined ordering process.