(A) Pursuant to I.C. 5-11-1-28, the Common Council hereby establishes an Internal Audit Committee to provide independent review and oversight of the city’s internal controls, and compliance with laws, regulations, and ethics.
(B) The Audit Committee will consist of three members, to be comprised of one member of the Common Council and two members of the Clerk-Treasurer’s office. While Committee members need not be accountants, they should possess sufficient knowledge and experience in finance, business and accounting to discharge the committee’s duties.
(C) The Committee shall have access to the services of a financial expert, either through a Committee member or an outside party engaged by the Committee for this purpose. Such financial expert should, through both education and experience, and in a manner specifically relevant to the city government sector, possess an understanding of generally accepted accounting principles and financial statements; experience in preparing or auditing financial statements of comparable entities; experience in applying such principles in connection with the accounting for estimates, accruals, and reserves; experience with internal accounting controls; and an understanding of Audit Committee functions.
(D) The duties and responsibilities of the Audit Committee are:
(1) To consider the effectiveness of the internal control system, including information technology security and control, review the effectiveness of the system for monitoring compliance with laws and regulations, and review the process for communicating the city’s ethics policies to city personnel and monitoring compliance therewith;
(2) To establish a process by which employees, taxpayers, or other citizens may confidentially report suspected illegal, improper, wasteful or fraudulent activity under provisions of I.C. 5-11-1-27; and
(3) To present a written committee report detailing how it discharged its duties and any committee recommendations to the full Common Council.
(E) The Internal Audit Committee will be adequately funded to carry out the duties and responsibilities as set out in this section and under applicable law.
(Res. 2019-565, passed 6-3-2019)