Meeting documents

To consider the attached report.

Contact Officer:  Kate Mulhearn (01296) 585724

The Committee received a report detailing the work that the Cross Party Group had done following the review into Aylesbury Vale Broadband.

On 28 June, 2018, Council resolved that a cross party group would be formed to oversee the implementation of the 22 recommendations of the BDO LLP review into AVB.  It had also been agreed that in view of concerns about various financial aspects of financial matters reported in the BDO LLP report, a detailed examination of the accounts of AVB would be carried out as a matter of urgency by AVDC’s internal audit team and a report of this be delivered to the Audit Committee.

Prior to the Council meeting, the Audit Committee had resolved on 12 June, 2018 that the Council’s "Guide to the Creation and Working with Companies in which AVDC has an interest" ( the "Guide") should be updated to reflect the recommendations identified in the BDO report.  The Committee had also asked the Democratic Manager to review the Councillors’ Code of Conduct taking into account the AVB review recommendations, in particular, the section relating to the divulgence of confidential papers.

The Cross Party Group comprising Councillors Branston (Chairman), B Chapple, A Cole, S Cole, Christensen, Lambert and Cooper had met on 6 December 2018 to consider the progress made on implementation of recommendations arising from the AVB review report.  This had included receiving a report of how the recommendations had been incorporated into the Guide together with a draft of the updated Guide.  A copy of the updated Guide, with tracked changes highlighting where the recommendations had been incorporated, was included with the Committee report.

In particular, the Group’s attention had been drawn to Recommendation 17 (Confidentiality requirements and the Code of Conduct).  The new Members’ Code of Conduct had been drafted taking into account the Audit Committee’s request that about the divulgence of confidential papers.  The Chairman of the Audit Committee had been closely involved in this process.  An updated Code of Conduct had been agreed by the Standards Committee on 3 December 2018 and would now be submitted to full Council for final approval.

The Group had then considered the AVB Financial Review that had been undertaken by the Corporate Governance Manager.  Members were informed that sample testing of income and expenditure incurred by AVB from inception to 31 March 2018 had been performed.  Samples had been selected from the AVB Nominal Ledger. The AVB annual accounts had been prepared by external accountants (Tax Assist) on the basis of the information contained in the nominal ledger. A report was presented detailing the testing performed and the results, and which had concluded that no exception had been identified in the sample testing.

On the basis of the documentation reviewed and the financial testing performed no concerns had arisen that would indicate that the financial accounts of AVB were not an accurate record of the affairs of the company.  Following consideration of all of the above information, the Group had agreed that the Guide should be updated with regard to information required in support of business cases, as discussed at the meeting.  The group had also been satisfied that the 22 recommendations stemming from the BDO LLP report on the review of AVB had been actioned, as well as the requested Financial Review, and should be reported back to the Audit Committee in January 2019.

In summary, the Cross Party Group had concluded that in accordance with Council’s resolution their work had been concluded and there would be no further need for the Group to meet again.

Members sought additional information and were informed that the investigation into the ‘yellow pages’ breaches that had been raised during the review of AVB was still ongoing and would be reported to Members in due course.

RESOLVED –

(1)          That the work of the Cross Party Group and the Officers supporting it be noted.

(2)          That the Council be recommended to approve the updated "Guide to Creation and Working with Companies in which AVDC had a Financial Interest", which is part of the Council’s Constitution at Section G (Codes and Protocols).