Meeting documents
Venue: Large & Small Committee Room, King George V House, King George V Road, Amersham
Contact: Democratic Services 01895 837236 ; Email: democraticservices@chilternandsouthbucks.gov.uk
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To approve
the minutes of the Audit and Standards Committee meetings held on 10 April 2019
and 15 May 2019. Additional documents: Minutes: The
Minutes of the meetings of the Audit and Standards Committee held on 10 April
2019 and 15 May 2019 were approved by the Committee and signed by the Chairman
as a correct record. |
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Declarations of Interest Minutes: There were
no declarations of interest. |
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Code of Conduct Complaints Monitoring Report 2018/19 PDF 49 KB Minutes: The Committee
considered a report of the Monitoring Officer which informed the Committee of
the complaints received by the Monitoring Officer in 2018/19 that members had
breached the Code of Conduct. It was noted that good practice was for the
Council to review the complaints received about members on a regular basis and
consider any action required to address issues raised. Paragraph 3.3
of the report detailed that four complaints had been received three of which
related to District Councillors and one against a Parish Councillor. This was
set against a total of 219 elected and
co-opted members of the district/town parish councils in Chiltern. The
complaints against the District Councillors had proceeded to Stage 2 where the
monitoring officer had found no evidence of a breach of the Council’s Code of
Conduct that warranted referral for investigation and therefore no further
action was taken. The complaint about the Parish Councillor had not proceeded
past Stage 1. In response to
a query raised by a member it was confirmed that the Council does have an up to
date whistleblowing procedure as well as a safeguarding policy so that
complainant confidentiality would be secure if there were sound reasons. RESOLVED That the complaints information for 2018/19 be noted. |
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Code of Conduct and Complaints Procedure for Buckinghamshire Council as a Shadow Authority PDF 41 KB Minutes: The Committee
received a report which detailed the standards arrangements in place for
members during the Shadow Authority period for Buckinghamshire Council. All members
of Chiltern District Council were automatically members of the Shadow Authority
for Buckinghamshire Council and therefore would be subject to the standards
arrangements in place when acting in that capacity. Members were
advised that Chiltern District Council’s Code of Conduct still applied and the
Shadow Authority code would only apply when Members were acting in their
capacity as a Member of the Shadow Authority. It was confirmed that for the
period 1 April 2020 until the fourth day after the local elections in May, the
only code that would apply was that of the Shadow Authority. A further
report would be presented to the Committee later in the year with details of
Code of Conduct and Complaints Procedure proposals for the new authority. RESOLVED That the report be noted. |
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Standards Work Programme PDF 64 KB Minutes: RESOLVED That the work programme
of the Standards Committee be agreed. |
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Internal Audit Progress Report PDF 215 KB Minutes: Members
received a progress report on the internal audit work at Chiltern District
Council as at 7 June 2019. Chris Harris, TIAA presented the report which
detailed progress against the Annual Plan for 2018-19 as set out in Appendix A
and progress against the Annual Plan for 2019-20 as set out in Appendix B. The
results of finalised audits with Priority 1 or 2 recommendations were shown at
Appendix C. The Committee
queried the advisory evaluation given to ‘overtime arrangements’ and it was
explained that a review process had been commissioned with no significant
issues having been identified. The Council had asked for this advisory audit to
be carried out to ensure overtime claims were being dealt with appropriately
following isolated incidents having been identified which resulted in employees
being subject to the Council’s disciplinary procedure. Progress
against the Annual Plans for 2018/19 and 2019/20 could be seen on pages 84-88
of the reports pack, whilst Priority 2 recommendations were detailed on pages
89-90. The Committee
noted that not all of the thirteen contracts which had been reviewed and had a
total spend of more than £50,000 had been executed under the Council’s common
seal; five had been executed by signature only. The Committee requested that
the Council’s legal team be informed of all contracts being entered into in
respect of the Chiltern Lifestyle Centre so that this additional measure of
compliance was in place for these contracts to be sealed. It was confirmed that
contracts under seal had a longer claims period. The Committee asked that
contracts already entered into for the Chiltern Lifestyle Centre as well as
those which were entered into for the Amersham Multi-Storey car park be
reviewed and findings reported back at the next meeting. RESOLVED That the report be noted. |
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Follow Up Review of 2018/19 Internal Audit Recommendations PDF 128 KB Minutes: The Committee
received a follow up review by TIAA which established the management action
that had been taken in respect of the priority 1, 2 and 3 recommendations which
had arisen from internal audit reviews at the Council and had been finalised
during 2018/19. These were joint audit reviews for both Chiltern and South
Bucks and were carried out during April and May 2019. The key findings were
detailed in the report. The Chairman
requested that the details of the two recommendations that were outstanding,
along with the two recommendations which were no longer applicable be shared
with the Committee by e-mail following the meeting. RESOLVED That the report be noted. |
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EY Annual Audit Fee Letter 2019/20 PDF 234 KB Minutes: The Committee
received the EY Annual Audit Fee letter for the 2019/20 financial year at
Chiltern District Council. This noted what the audit fee covered and included
the assumptions the indicative fee was based on. The summary of fees was
detailed in the report and the audit plan was expected to be issued in December
2019. Andrew Britten
and Malcolm Haines, Ernst and Young (EY), presented the report and advised the
Committee of the reasons for which the external audit of accounts for 2018/19
had been delayed. EY had suffered a significant level of attrition in the
Public Sector audit Team following staff in key roles leaving their posts in
this geographical region which meant that the decision had to be taken to
reschedule the audit to ensure that people with extensive knowledge were in
post to be robust in their audits. Nineteen of EY’s local authority clients had
been affected, including all neighbouring Bucks Districts. Forty-one recruits
had started or were due to start in the Public Sector audit division. The PSAA
who are responsible for overseeing external audit contracts are aware of the
situation and are monitoring it closely. It was confirmed that the scale fee
set for the scope of work would not be amended. Two issues had
arisen from the audit work carried out to date, these included the substantial
downwards revaluation of the Amersham Multi Storey car park. The basis for
valuing car parks for accounting purposes was generally accepted however this
had been referred to the technical specialist at EY to review and make comments
and observations on the actual calculation; if the valuation were to be
different, a suggested amendment would be made to the draft accounts. The other
issue identified was around pension liability uncertainties following the McCloud
judgement hearing being upheld which could result in additional public sector
pension payments. A report had been issued by the Government Actuary’s
Department with a method of calculating liability. A re-run of the figures had
been requested from the Council’s actuary and from this it would be known
whether any adjustments would be required. RESOLVED That the Annual Audit Fee 2019/20 letter be noted. |
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EY Working with you - Our Method Statement PDF 410 KB Minutes: The Committee
received the EY’s Method Statement which detailed an overview of the approach
that would be taken. The document could be seen in its entirety on pages 99 to
104 of the reports pack. RESOLVED That the Method Statement be noted. |
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Approval of Draft Accounts PDF 63 KB Minutes: The Committee
received the draft 2018/19 Statement of Accounts for consideration. Each year
the Authority was required to produce a formal statement of Accounts document
in accordance with the Accounts and Audit Regulations. The accounts were
subject to an external audit. The draft
accounts contained a narrative report; statement of responsibilities; comprehensive
income and expenditure statement; movement in reserves statement; balance
sheet; notes to the accounts; collection fund and; auditor’s report and annual
governance statement. It was
highlighted to the Committee that the key movements in the Council’s usable
reserves were: ·
The
General Fund Balance reduced by £215,000 to £6,432,000. ·
Earmarked
Reserves reduced by £1,006,000 to £11,525,000. ·
The
Council’s Capital Receipts Reserve has been fully utilised. £1,080,000 was used
to fund capital expenditure in 2018/19. And the key
movements in the Council’s unusable reserves were: ·
The
revaluation reserve had decreased by £2,782,000. This was due to the downwards
revaluation of the Amersham multi storey car park. ·
The
pension deficit had reduced by £1,488,000 and the accumulated estimated pension
fund deficit was now £43,126,000. The
accompanying report set out a summary table of the Council’s key assets and
liabilities. It was
confirmed to Members that the Council received zero revenue support grant in
2018/19 and that the negative RSG had not been enacted by Government. The Committee
queried why the Planning and Economic Development portfolio’s gross expenditure
had increased from £2.62m in 2017/18 to £4.115m in 2018/19 and similarly the
Environment portfolio had increased from £10.487m to £19.444m. With regard to Planning and Economic Development, it was confirmed that this had
previously been reported as CDC only and was now a shared service with
SBDC. The Environment portfolio was impacted by the write off in
valuation of the Amersham Multi-storey car park. Further details behind these
figures would be provided to the Committee. Further, the
Committee requested that details of the reasons behind the change in the net
surplus or (deficit) on the provision of services and adjustments to net
surplus or deficit on the provision of services for non-cash movements detailed
on page 118 of the reports pack be circulated to members of the Committee due
to the vast difference from the figures of 2017/18. The final
accounts would be brought back before the Audit and Standards Committee for
formal sign-off in October following the external audit. RESOLVED That the draft accounts be noted by the Audit & Standards
Committee. Note:
Councillor N Varley left the meeting at 7.30 p.m. |
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Audit Committee Work Programme HTM 2 KB Minutes: The Committee received the work programme and noted that along with
the items detailed, the final accounts would be presented to the October
meeting for sign off. RESOLVED That the work programme of
the Audit Committee be agreed.  |
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Exclusion of the Public (if required) To resolve
that under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 the public be
excluded from the meeting for the following item(s) of business on the grounds
that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part
I of Schedule 12A of the Act.
Minutes:
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Summary of Public Service Network Compliance Minutes: The Committee
received a report which provided an update on the health check completed and
remedial action plan following the annual application for a Public Services
Network (PSN) connection compliance certificate. This report
had been presented to the Committee following interest expressed at a previous
meeting in respect of what the Council was expected to conform to and was
accredited on annually. The appendices which accompanied the report detailed
the extensive technical piece of work which had been carried out to ensure the
compliance of the network. All but one of
the actions that came out of the most recent health check had been actioned and
closed and the ICT system overall was sound. Further, the programmed move to
the cloud was due to take place over the next 12 to 18 months in parallel with
the other councils in Buckinghamshire. In response to
a query raised, it was confirmed that the issue with Wi-Fi access the Council
had experienced at its offices was the fault of a national issue with O2, and
not related to the Council’s network. RESOLVED That the report be noted. |