Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Newton (Vice Chair).

At this point Members must declare whether they have an interest, whether personal or prejudicial, in any of the items on the agenda. Members must also declare if they are subject to their party group whip in relation to any items under consideration.

There were no declarations of interest.

         The minutes of the meeting held on 29 March 2010 had been circulated to the previous Audit Committee Members for their comments.

         Councillor M Dalton, the previous Chair of the Committee and Councillor North, the previous Vice Chair of the Committee approved the minutes as a true and accurate record of the meeting.

The Committee agreed to vary the order of the agenda and to take item number 5, Budget Monitoring Report Final Outturn 2009 / 2010, first.

To receive the draft Statement of Accounts and associated papers for the year ended 31 March 2010.

The Head of Strategic Finance presented the Statement of Accounts for Year Ended 31 March 2010.

The Council had to consider and approve its accounts by 30 June 2010 at a meeting of either the Full Council or a committee of the Council. This was a requirement of the Accounts & Audit Regulations 2003 (amended 2006) and the Council’s Constitution delegated this matter to the Audit Committee.

The Council Section 151 Officer (Executive Director – Strategic Resources), had responsibility for certifying that the Accounts presented fairly the financial           position of the Council at 31 March 2010.

The Accounts for 2009 / 2010 conformed with the CIPFA (Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy) Best Vale Code of Practice for Local Authority Accounts and the new Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP). The individual financial statements, along with the notes that accompanied them, aimed to give a full and clear picture of the financial position of the Council.

The Head of Strategic Finance addressed the Committee and stated that since the submission of the papers to the Audit Committee, further work had been        undertaken in preparation for the external audit. There were therefore          amendments to two items these being:

·         Within the Income and Expenditure Account, the gross expenditure and gross income for Children’s and Education Services were overstated. The overstatement occurred within the service, therefore the net expenditure remained the same.

·         There was a typographical error which gave the employer’s pension contributions for Gillian Beasley, Chief Executive, as £19,875 for 2009 / 2010 and £18,454 for 2008 / 2009 instead of £27,909 for 2009 / 2010 and £26,037 for 2008 / 2009.

The Committee was advised that the accounts presented to it for sign off   included these amendments. Once approved by the Audit Committee the Accounts would be passed to the Council’s External Auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for in depth scrutiny.

Members were invited to comment on the report and the following issues and observations were highlighted:

·         Members questioned whether the error regarding the Chief Executive’s pension contributions was only in one section of the report. Members were advised that the error was only present in one table, under Senior Employee’s Remuneration, which highlighted the Senior Officers whose salary was £150,000 or more.

·         A query was raised regarding the Balance Sheet which was contained in the Statement of Accounts 2009 / 2010. Pension fund liability had increased by 150%, and Members requested an explanation as to how was this funded. Members were advised that each year the actuary provided an estimation of the figure which was required to be put into the accounts. This figure did not accrue in one go, but over a number of decades and it required the employer to pay a pension contribution. The actuary was due to report back on the situation later on in 2010. The Mid Term Financial Strategy going forward would reflect this, and provisions had been made for these increased costs. Members were further advised that a review of public and private sector pensions was due  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

         The Head of Strategic Finance presented the Budget Monitoring Report Final Outturn 2009 / 2010. The report highlighted to Members the final financial performance for revenue and capital at 31 March 2010.

The report contained performance information on treasury management activities, the payment of creditors in service and collection performance for debtors, local taxation and benefit overpayments.

         The financial year 2009 / 2010 had been a challenging financial year with an array of one off and emerging pressures’ since Full Council approved the revenue and capital budget requirement for 2009 / 2010 in February 2009. Early in the financial year, an analytical review concluded that high level risks and issues would require careful monitoring, review and appropriate management action to ensure that the financial position of the Council remained stable. 

The Council had been able to manage the expectations as set out in the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) with no detrimental impact to services such as service cuts, remedial action had been taken where required to mitigate pressures including addressing ongoing pressures within setting the financial strategy for 2010 - 2015 and it had been ensured that the financial position of the Council remained stable.

         The Council’s overall revenue position was £364k under spent, against a budget of £151,273k, an improvement of £1,192k since the adopted outturn had been reported to Cabinet. The was in part due to the robust mechanisms put in place to mitigate the emerging pressures such as reduced income streams and demand led services, utilising the Council’s reserves to meet one off costs as agreed during the setting of the MTFS 2010 – 2015 and also slowing down non-priority spend or delaying projects and initiatives with no detriment to the MTFS. Alongside these actions, Children’s Services and Operations had successfully delivered their action plans. All risks had been corporately managed over the last quarter of the financial year.

         Members were invited to comment on the report and the following issues and observations were highlighted:

·         Members queried which capital projects had been deferred during the capital programme refresh. Members were advised that schemes such as the Waste Project, Hampton Secondary School and Affordable Housing, had been deferred. The feasibility of the schemes was a key consideration going forward and where practical, schemes would be scaled down so that more could be delivered.

·         Appendix A to the report contained a table which highlighted a further breakdown of under and over spends (by service activity). Numerous queries were directed to the Executive Director – Strategic Resources and responses were given as follows:

i)                    Westcombe was included in the City Services total, Members queried what the future plans for Westcombe were. Members were advised that Westcombe had been brought back to be Council run until the best option for its future could be decided. This was expected to be in September 2010. The options were to retain it or to close it. If retention was accepted, then there would be the possibility of keeping Westcombe at no cost to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

To receive standard feedback report on issues and actions requests made at past meetings of the Committee.

The Chief Internal Auditor submitted the latest Feedback Report for consideration.     

Members were advised that there was one issue which had been highlighted for follow up at the previous meeting of the Audit Committee, which was to provide further information on the number of Blue Badge applications being dealt with on a yearly basis.  Members were further advised that during 2009 / 2010 there had been 3167 applications processed in total which included new applications, renewals and refusals.

ACTION AGREED:

The Committee noted the Feedback Report.

To review the current work programme and propose any future training needs.

         The Chief Internal Auditor submitted the latest version of the Work Programme for the municipal year 2010 / 2011 for consideration and approval.

         Members were advised that a training session was proposed to take place prior to the next meeting of the Audit Committee, commencing at 6.00 p.m. This session would cover Risk Management.

ACTION AGREED:

The Committee noted and approved the 2010 / 2011 Work Programme.