Meeting documents
- Meeting of Audit Committee, Monday 26th March 2018 6.30 pm (Item 6.)
To consider the attached report.
Contact Officer: Kate Mulhearn (01296) 585724
Minutes:
The Audit Committee had a role to monitor the effectiveness of risk management and internal control across the Council. As part of discharging this role the committee was asked to review the Corporate Risk Register (CRR). The CRR provided evidence of a risk aware and risk managed organisation and reflected the risks that were on the current radar for Commercial Board. Some of the risks were not dissimilar to those faced across other local authorities.
Since the previous Audit Committee meeting in January 2018 the following risks had changed:
|
Risk Reference |
Change |
Comment |
|
4) Portfolio of commercial (profit generating/cost recovery) activities and opportunities fails to produce the return on investment needed to support a sustainable Council. |
New (Moderate) |
Risk reflects need for continuing focus on income generation to achieve a sustainable Council. |
|
22) Failure to adequately plan for next round of growth following adoption of VALP; including consideration of CaMKOx Corridor and need to meet updated OAN housing targets. |
New (Moderate) |
Need for continued coordination and communication around the growth agenda. Consideration of impact of final unitary decision. |
|
19) Modernising Local Government: i) fails to achieve an outcome that addresses community needs ii) disruption to service delivery due to resource detraction from day-job and ongoing uncertainty impacting all areas. Potential impact on retention and recruitment. |
Reduced Increased High ?Extreme |
"Minded to" decision announced 12 March in support of a single unitary for Bucks; against the 2 unitary proposal preferred by the Districts. Period of uncertainty will have impact across all areas of council; staff morale, recruitment & retention, strategic decision making and deflection of resource to the reorganisation process. |
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2) Organisational culture does not enable the strategy (Connected Vision, Connected Knowledge & commercial targets). Behaviour framework and Values are not embedded. |
Reduced Increased Moderate ?High |
Recognised that staff morale (existing and new) may have deteriorated in recent months and the need for increased communication from Directors on vision and direction of the new organisation. Post behavioural assessments, work is needed to embed desired behaviours into cultural norm. |
|
Risk Reference |
Change |
Comment |
|
15) Failure to manage a major partnership or a significant council contractor. |
Increased Increased Moderate to High |
Significant performance issues with Street Cleaning contractor. Contractor is working on improvement plan and being closely monitored. |
|
1) Fail to achieve the Medium Term Financial Plan. Annual sector budgets are not delivered. |
Reduced High to Moderate |
Balanced MTFP to 2021/22 approved. |
|
7) Waste Transformation Project fails to deliver commercial, customer, H&S, Environmental objectives. |
Reduced High to Moderate |
Actions are being implemented in line with programme targets. |
The Council’s managementcontinuedtoconsidertherisksarising following theBrexitdecision. Atthisstagethere was toomuch uncertaintyaboutthe specificimplicationson thestrategic objectivesand daytodayoperationsof theCouncil to putanythingmeaningful on theCRR. Members were also informed that a full assessment and rating of Risk 5 (Fail to deliver the Commercial Property Investment Strategy and achieve planned return on investment) had not yet been completed.
Members challenged robustly some of the assumptions made in the CRR, both in specific and general terms.
Members requested further information and were informed:-
(i) by the Corporate Governance Manager that she was endeavouring to obtain Risk Register information from the other Bucks authorities so that a comparison could be made.
(ii) Risk 9 (Failure to recruit Technical Professional Specialists) – that while the Council was still looking to fill some technical specialist vacancies, the number of vacancies had reduced in the last few months. As such, the overall risk rating had been assessed and reduced to Moderate.
(iii) Risk 12 (Fail to plan for a major or large scale incident) – it was agreed that this risk should be divided into separate Emergency Planning and Business Continuity risks.
(iv) Risk 14 (Safeguarding) – Action Tracker item to be included relating to training sessions to be provided to elected Members.
(v) Risk 19 (Modernising Local Government) – recent events had contributed to this risk increasing from high to extreme. It was acknowledged that continued communications with staff were essential and that this risk had the potential to impact on all other risks.
(vi) Risk 22 (Failure to adequately plan for next round of growth following adoption of VALP) – it was acknowledged by Officers that information needed to be provided on the controls that had been put in place to reduce/mitigate this risk.
RESOLVED –
That the current position of the Corporate Risk Register be noted.
Supporting documents:
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