Auditors convene in East Ayrshire

The conference is held every two years, but this is the first time it has been held in Ayrshire. East Ayrshire Council’s Chief Internal Auditor, Eilidh Mackay is the current Chair of the association.

The theme of the event was “Connections, Collaborations and Catalysts” and the programme focused on procurement and cyber security.

Guest speakers on day 1 included Fiona Lees, Chief Executive, East Ayrshire Council, Hugh Carr, Head of Strategic Procurement, Scotland Excel Martin Bolden, DXC Technology, and Lesley McLean, Corporate Procurement Manager, East Ayrshire Council

Speakers for day 2 included Gemma Diamond, Senior Audit Manager, Audit Scotland, Paul Chapman, Head of Public Sector Cyber Resilience, Scottish Government, Neil Coutts, Head of Cyber Security & Technology Risk, KPMG and Ian Aston, ICT Security Manager, East Ayrshire Council.

East Ayrshire Council’s Chief Internal Auditor, Eilidh Mackay said: “It was an honour to welcome colleagues from other authorities to East Ayrshire. SLACIAG is a Special Interest Group of CIPFA and is a truly representative body of local authority internal audit in Scotland, and it is our vision to be a driving force for best practice in respect of local authority internal audit, governance, and operations.

“The Group has strong membership participation and this year’s conference gave delegates the opportunity to meet colleagues from other organisations, to build relationships

and share good practice.

“The programme focussed on a couple of hot topics identified through our training needs analysis, namely procurement and cyber security, and our panel of expert speakers gave a valuable insight to help us establish strong control environments within our organisations.”