Agenda and minutes

There were none.

All Members are required to declare, at this point in the meeting or as soon as possible thereafter, any disclosable pecuniary interest or personal interest in any item(s) being considered at this meeting.

There were none.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meetings held on 20^th March 2019 and 16 May 2019 be signed as a true and correct record.

(NOTE: The Board is required to receive a deputation(s) on a matter which is before the meeting of the Board provided that notice of the intended deputation and its object shall have been received by the Borough Solicitor by 12 noon on Monday, 22 July 2019.  The total time for deputations in favour and against a proposal shall not exceed 10 minutes).

There were none.

(NOTE: The Board is required to allow a total of 15 minutes for questions from Members of the public on matters within the terms of reference of the Board provided that notice of such Question(s) shall have been submitted to the Borough Solicitor by 12 noon on Monday, 22 July 2019).

There were none.

To seek approval from Members in regards to the Annual Governance Statement 2018/19.

Consideration was given to a report of the Deputy Chief Internal Auditor PCC covering for the Head of Internal Audit seeking approval from Members in regards to the Annual Governance Statement 2018/19.

The Board were advised that the assessments undertaken indicated the robustness and that if there were gaps how they would be breached. The Statement formed part of the accounts and had been discussed with the Chief Executive, Section 151 Officer and Monitoring Officer.

There were no significant areas of concern and the statement also included the Internal Audit opinion.

The Risk Management arrangements had been amended and developed as they were not suitable for the work that was required to be undertaken, new procedures had been implemented to better suit the requirements.

The work on the workforce of the Council and the drive for efficiencies had been undertaken with efficiency work ongoing.

Governance issues had been address and the risk identified in counter fraud assessment was being addressed as part of the improvement in staffing.

Members requested that the layout of the report be amended for clarity and that any missing information be provided to Board Members.

The Board was advised that recruitment to Internal Audit had been undertaken and a job offer made, which had been accepted.

The Board were also advised that existing staff were being offered exposure to additional audit practices and authorities for support and to broaden knowledge.

It was clarified to Members which elements of the report they were being asked to approve and it was recognised that elements of the process were required to be presented to the Standards and Governance Committee.

      Resolved: That the Policy and Organisation Board approve the Annual 

      Governance Statement for 2018/19

Report to follow.

Consideration was given to a report of the external auditor, EY summarising the external findings to date from the 2018-2019 external audit.

The Board was advised of the key highlights of the report identifying that there were no significant or high risks.

The Board was advised that it was anticipated that the work would be completed by the deadline of 31^st July, and that this deadline was set nationally and presented a challenge for all external audit providers.

The Board were advised that there were no significant risks to the council and that investigations had been undertaken into risk on property, plant and equipment and that the PPE risk had been completed.

Investigations were ongoing into the Pension Liability Risk and the GMP impact risk level had not yet been agreed.

The new accounting standards required had been introduced.

RESOLVED: That the Board note the conclusions to date set out in the Audit Results Report.

Report to follow

Consideration was given to a report of the Borough Treasurer summarising the outturn position for the 2018/1 financial year and recommends the approval of the statement of accounts.

The Board was advised that the report was presented in such way as required to be correctly accountable.

Members expressed concern at the level of slippage that had occurred and questioned whether costs would increase as a result, or that residents would miss out as a result of projects not undertaken.

The Board was advised that some slippage was caused as a result of timings, with partnership organisations delay work, other slippage had been caused by an increase in disability grant that could not be spent until the manpower to undertake work was available.

Members requested that further investigation be made into the timing and proposal of capital spending to better ensure that slippage did not occur.

In answer to a Members question, no profit had yet been received from the Priddys Hard development or any other similar projects.

The Board was advised that the Brexit grant was determined by central Government.

In answer to a Member’s question the Board was advised that the capital programme was attributed to each Board as part of its structure and discussed at the Policy and Organisation Board as a whole.

RESOLVED: That

i)         The Board note the outturn position summarised in the report and the Narrative Report contained in the Statement of Accounts (Appendix A, page 1)

ii)       The Board approves the Statement of Accounts for 2018/19 at Appendix A

iii)      The Board approve the Letter of Representation at Appendix B

iv)        The Board delegate to the Borough Treasurer in consultation with the  Chairman of the Policy & Organisation Board the decision to agree any final change to the financial statement arising from the completion of the audit

Report to follow

This item was withdrawn from the agenda.

There were none.