Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Posnett.  Councillors Bains and Illingworth were not present.

 

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 18 September 2018.

The minutes of the meeting held on 18 September 2018 were confirmed and authorised to be signed by the Chair.

 

The exempt minutes of the meeting held on 18 September 2018 were confirmed and authorised to be signed by the Vice Chair.

Members to declare any interest as appropriate in respect of items to be considered at this meeting.

Councillor Orson declared a personal interest in any matters relating to the Leicestershire County Council, due to his role as a County Councillor.

The Head of Internal Audit to submit a report to update Members on progress made in delivery of the 2018/19 Annual Audit Plan and key findings arising from audit assignments completed since the last Committee meeting.

The Head of Internal Audit

 

(a)  submitted a report (copies of which had previously been circulated to Members) which updated the Committee on progress made in delivery of the 2018/19 Annual Audit Plan and key findings arising from audit assignments completed since the last Committee meeting;

 

(b)  highlighted that 65% of planned assignments were either complete or in progress and a copy of the Audit Plan (Appendix A of the report) showed the progress made on all planned audit assignments.

 

(c)  confirmed that since the last Committee meeting, three reports had been finalised and the key findings were set out at section 2.5 of the report

                      i.        Absence Management:  Sample testing had confirmed that sickness absence figures were complete.  Actions were being taken to record, monitor and take action in relation to sickness absences, in line with the existing policy (all except one absence was found to be recorded accurately on the system.  This had already been identified by the Human Resources Department and was being addressed).  It had been noted that the Council’s performance reporting on sickness absence should be improved.  Testing on flexi and annual leave did not highlight any areas of concern.  An overall good assurance opinion had been given by Internal Audit. 

                    ii.        Travel expenses:  A sample of travel claims and subsistence had been reviewed, revealing that consistent documentation for recording travel claims was used but there were some areas of inconsistency in applying Council policy (on calculating the claimable mileage).  These had been referred to Senior Management for further consideration.  Review of the Essential Car User Scheme confirmed that a set criteria for the Scheme should be defined and essential car users should be regularly reassessed against the set criteria.  Analysis of a sample of rail travel claims demonstrated that the claim form was consistently used for booking rail journeys, there was evidence of manager review and authorisation and supporting evidence (rail tickets retained and available for review).  It was confirmed that the rates paid in excess of the HMRC’s approved mileage rates was taxable and this tax was paid via payroll.  Based upon these findings, a satisfactory assurance opinion had been given by Internal Audit.

                   iii.        Debt management – Consultancy:  Internal Audit found that policies and procedures required modernising and training should be delivered to emphasise and clarify the debt recovery arrangements and responsibilities.  The sundry debt recovery process was less effective than other debt recovery processes and a strategy to incentivise service areas and ensure escalation for persistent non response should increase recovery efficiency.  In addition, there were a number of areas related to reoccurring debtors, where pre-payment and direct debit optimisation could be used to make debt recovery more effective.  Benchmarking on areas for improvement was undertaken with other Leicestershire districts to compare and contrast the Council’s current debt position.  This highlighted areas for development, which Senior Management would take forward.

 

(d)  advised that since the last Committee meeting, eight actions from audit reports had been completed.  There were twelve actions overdue  ...  view the full minutes text for item G106

The Head of Internal Audit to advise the Committee on the proposed approach to development of the 2019/20 Audit Plan and consult Members on risk areas for consideration.

The Head of Internal Audit

 

(a)  submitted a report (copies of which had previously been circulated to Members) which provided an overview of the Audit Planning process for 2019/20 and consulted Members on risk areas for consideration in development of the Audit Plan;

 

(b)  gave a brief summary of the report, advising that it set out for Members the proposed approach to the development of the Audit Plan for 2019/20;

 

(c)  advised that the approach was in accordance with the Public Sector Internal Auditing Standards and intended to ensure the Council developed a risk based Audit Plan, which provided the Committee and Senior Management with the assurances they required;

 

(d)  confirmed that the approach involved

 

·         a review of the risk registers and the Corporate Plan

·         mapping of existing assurances, including those from Internal Audit

·         a review of gaps in current assurances or areas of weakness previously identified, which required re-review

·         consideration of the Peer Review, which explored risk areas, to limit any duplication of work

·         identifying any areas of the Audit Universe (potential areas for audit review across the Council) which had not been subject to review previously

·         consultation with this Committee and meetings with each member of Senior Management Team to discuss key risks and issues for the year ahead and any consultancy work which would add value;

 

(e)  advised that the draft audit plan would be presented to the Governance Committee for formal review and approval in March 2019, at which point refinements could be made if necessary;

 

(f)   requested that Members highlight any risk areas where the Committee required assurance during the year ahead.

 

The Chief Executive highlighted the importance of following the terms of reference of this Committee, in relation to audit purposes.  The remit was to ensure the Council complied with legal requirements, rather than scrutinising performance.

 

A Member queried if Internal Audit undertook audits on organisations who the Council worked in partnership with (such as the Cattle Market and the Leisure services contract.  The Director for Corporate Services advised that the Council carried out an annual inspection of the Cattle Market accounts, as income sharing arrangements were in place.  However, the Leisure contract paid a management fee to the Council and as such, no inspection of their accounts was required or undertaken.

 

Members suggested that the following areas be looked at by Internal Audit:-

·         homelessness

·         Council website

·         private properties – empty homes

·         Council void properties

·         housing allocations

 

There being no further comments or questions from Members, it was

 

RESOLVED that

 

(1)  the proposed approach to developing the Audit Plan for 2019/20 be approved;

 

(2)  any risk areas where the Committee requires assurance during the year ahead were highlighted.

The Head of Internal Audit to submit a report updating Members on the implementation and latest status of the Counter Fraud Action Plan.

The Head of Internal Audit

 

(a)  submitted a report (which had previously been circulated to Members) which updated the Committee on the implementation and latest status of the Counter Fraud Action Plan;

 

(b)  highlighted that the Counter Fraud Strategy Action Plan (at Appendix A of the Report) had been introduced last year (to be reviewed on a six-monthly basis by this Committee), to ensure that the Council’s counter fraud arrangements were constantly monitored and strengthened and that best practice was adopted wherever possible;

 

(c)  advised that the Action Plan incorporated all areas for possible improvement, identified in the assessment against the CIPFA Code of Practice and any other areas identified by Senior Management and Internal Audit;

 

(d)  confirmed that all actions since the last meeting of this Committee on 18 September 2018, had been completed.  The 11 November to 17 November 2018 had been Fraud Awareness week.  Publicity to raise staff awareness of personal and corporate fraud and build confidence in raising concerns had taken place.  This included training from the Cyber Security Advisor at East Midlands Special Operations Unit, which had been well received by staff.  Any staff who were unable to attend this training would have the opportunity to attend a further session on 10 December.

 

Members queried how much money had been recovered from past frauds.  The Head of Internal Audit advised that this information was not currently available.  It was reported annually with the Fraud Log and would be submitted to this Committee in June 2019.  The report would be limited to corporate fraud and would not include benefit fraud.  The Director for Corporate Services added that a final report on recovery of monies from the creditor fraud would be submitted to Members when the final position was known.

 

There being no further comments or questions from Members, it was

 

RESOLVED that the status of the Counter Fraud Action Plan be noted.

The Director for Legal and Democratic Services to submit a report receiving the Leader’s report on the Governance Development Group’s work on the review of Governance arrangements (which is to be considered by the Extraordinary meeting of the Council on 21 November 2018) and requesting the Committee’s comments on the Leader’s report.

The Director for Legal and Democratic Service submitted a report (copies of which had previously been circulated to Members) receiving the Leader’s report on the Governance Development Group’s work on the review of governance arrangements (which would be considered by the Extraordinary meeting of the Council on 21 November 2018) and requesting the Committee’s comments on the Leader’s report.

 

Referring to the presentation slides, which had been circulated during the meeting, the Chief Executive

 

(a)  advised that the Council had commissioned the Local Government Association’s (LGA) Peer Challenge, which had been undertaken in December 2017.  This had resulted in a list of recommendations, concerning capacity, prioritisation and governance (together with a report and Action Plan) from the LGA, which were accepted by Council.  The Council responded by prioritising a number of the identified areas and took steps to improve (and it continued to focus on capacity and prioritisation issues).  A further review of the Council’s governance arrangements had been undertaken by the LGA in March 2018;

 

(b)  highlighted the key findings of the LGA Governance Review, which had confirmed and validated the views of Members and officers.  These were:-

 

·         Where policy development happened was unclear

·         Risk that “Everyone involved in everything”

·         Lack of clarity over leadership resulted in costly and slow decision making

·         Overlaps between the committees

·         Sub structures diluting and disempowering committees

·         Scheme of delegation too inflexible and rigid

·         Council’s governance needed a radical overhaul

 

(c)  emphasised that the Committee’s observations of the Council’s lack of a ‘check and challenge’ function were accurate.  He acknowledged that the Committee was eager to ensure that the Council’s decision making and performance were effective.  However, ‘check and challenge’ was not within the scope of this Committees Terms of Reference.  The proposed Cabinet model would provide for a ‘check and challenge’ function in the form of Scrutiny.

 

Also referring to the presentation slides, the Director for Legal and Democratic Services

 

(a)  advised that key findings from the LGA Review had been reported to this Committee on 27 March 2018 and at the meeting Members had commissioned an informal member/officer group (the Governance Development Group) to bring forward proposals to strengthen and streamline the current Committee structure and create a clearer route for policy development;

(b)  stated that on 8 May 2019, the Council had approved Phase 1 proposals and had agreed that the Governance Development Group should review the Council’s governance arrangements and consider the merits of alternative governance models;

 

(c)  advised that the Group had

·         met on a regular basis

·         reflected on local experiences

·         visited other councils, who were chosen based on their adopted model of Governance.  This ensured that a range of models could be seen, as it was important to understand all of the alternative governance structures and how they worked at each council.  All but one council had changed its governance model in the past six years.  It became clear that one system was not inherently better that the other but had to fit the individual council at that  ...  view the full minutes text for item G109

The Monitoring Officer to submit a report to update the Committee on the latest position with regard to standards matters including the Code of Conduct, the Registration of Disclosable Pecuniary Interests and Other Interests and any complaints against Councillors dealt with under the Council’s process.

The Monitoring Officer

 

(a)  submitted a report (which had previously been circulated to Members) which updated the Committee on the latest position with regard to standards matters, including the Code of Conduct, the Registration of Disclosable Pecuniary Interests and Other Interests and any complaints against Councillors dealt with under the Council’s process;

 

(b)  confirmed that Disclosure of Pecuniary Interests continued to be received from Borough and Parish Councillors and the Council’s website was updated accordingly;

 

(c)  advised that since the last meeting of this Committee on 18 September 2018, two complaints had been closed.  There remained two complaints in progress (each related to the same matter), which were under consideration by the Monitoring Officer and were at the unformal resolution stage;

 

(d)  highlighted that there had been no responses to the recent advertisement for an Independent Person.  Due to the difficulties in recruiting to this role, arrangements would be reviewed and other options would be considered (eg the use of a pool of Independent Persons, which was the approach taken by the other districts).

 

It was noted that the Council paid its Independent Persons but no other local authority did so.

 

There being no further comments or questions from Members, it was

 

RESOLVED that the update on the position of standards matters, including Parishes’ Registration of Disclosable Pecuniary Interests and Other Interests and complaints against Councillors dealt with under the provisions of the Localism Act be noted.

To consider any other items that the Chair considers urgent.

 

There was no urgent business.