A number of council meetings are live-streamed.
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Venue: Committee Room - Council Offices and Zoom
Contact: Ann Holmes
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The Chair welcomed all those present to this meeting of the Governance and Audit Committee. The Chair extended his and the Committee’s members’ condolences to Mr Alan Hughes, Audit Wales’s Performance Audit Lead on a recent close family bereavement.
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Declaration of Interest To receive any declaration of interest by any Member or Officer in respect of any item of business. Minutes: No declaration of interest was received.
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Minutes of the Previous Meeting PDF 165 KB To present the minutes of the previous meeting of the Governance and Audit Committee held on 27 June 2024. Minutes: The minutes of the previous meeting of the Governance and Audit Committee held on the 27 June, 2024 were presented and were confirmed as correct subject to noting that Councillors Dyfed Wyn Jones and Margaret Roberts had tendered apologies for absence for the meeting.
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Governance and Audit Committee Action Log PDF 60 KB To present the report of the Head of Audit and Risk. Minutes: The report of the Head of Audit and Risk incorporating the committee action log was presented for consideration. The report updated the Committee on the status of the actions/decisions it had agreed upon at its previous two meetings (the action log having been introduced for the 18 April 2024 meeting) to allow members to monitor progress against all actions.
The Head of Audit and Risk confirmed that two actions had been completed and would be removed from the log and that reports in connection with the remaining actions were not scheduled to be presented until later in the year. The action under number 10 is in progress and will be completed by December, 2024.
It was resolved to note the actions detailed in the action log table and to confirm that the Committee is content that the actions have been implemented to its satisfaction.
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Draft Statement of the Accounts 2023/24 PDF 1 MB To present the report of the Director of Function (Resources)/Section 151 Officer. Minutes: The report of the Director of Function (Resources)/Section 151 Officer incorporating the draft Statement of the Accounts for the 2023/24 financial year was presented for the Committee’s consideration. The Statement of the Accounts is a statutory document that is prepared in accordance with proper accounting practices and is produced annually to give electors, local taxpayers, members of the Council, employees, and other interested parties information about the Council’s finances in the previous financial year.
The report was presented by the Director of Function (Resources)/Section 151 Officer who thanked the Finance team and all those who had had an input into the production of the draft accounts for their work in enabling the draft accounts to be published by the deadline which for 2023/24 has been extended by Welsh Government to 30 June 2024. The Director of Function (Resources)/Section 151 Officer referred to the principal purpose of the accounts as being to provide their readers with the information to allow them to form an opinion about the Council’s financial position and its management and use of public money. He provided an overview of the main sections of the accounts comprising of the core financial statements and the key explanatory notes and what they reflect as regards the Council’s financial standing, and referred to Tables 1, 2 and 3 in the introductory report which summarised the Council’s reserves and balances position including how each type of reserve has changed over the year. The accounts show that at the end of 2023/24 the draft Council reserves stood at £15.604m and the total usable reserves stood at £50.099m. The value of the council’s net assets increased by £37.682m from £404.650m last year to £442.332m as at 31 March 2024.
The following were points of discussion by the Committee –
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Draft Annual Governance Statement 2023/24 PDF 471 KB To present the report of the Head of Profession (HR) and Transformation. Minutes: The report of the Head of Profession (HR) and Transformation incorporating the draft Annual Governance Statement for 2023/24 was presented for the Committee’s consideration. The Governance Statement shows how the Council is complying with the core and supporting principles contained within CIPFA/Solace’s Framework for Delivering Good Governance in Local Government 2016 in having proper arrangements for the governance of its affairs, facilitating the effective exercise of its functions including arrangements for the management of risk together with adequate and effective financial management.
The report was presented by the Corporate Planning, Performance and Programme Manager who provided an overview of the conclusion of the assessment of the effectiveness of the Council’s Governance arrangements against the core principles of the CIPFA/Solace Framework as per the table at page 5 of the document. The report also contained a summary of progress against the governance matters identified last year as well as governance matters identified by the assessment process for 2023/24.
The following were points of discussion by the Committee –
The Committee was further advised as follows –
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Review of the Annual Draft Corporate Self-Assessment Report 2023/24 PDF 639 KB To present the report of the Head of Profession (HR) and Transformation. Minutes: The report of the Head of Profession (HR) and Transformation incorporating the draft Annual Corporate Self-Assessment Report for 2023/24 was presented for the Committee’s consideration. The report provides an evidential basis of how the Council has performed over the year using its available resources whilst managing and mitigating associated risks in line with the expectations of the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021.
The report was presented by the Corporate Planning, Performance and Programme Manager who referred to the seven key areas which are the focus of the self-assessment. Four areas (service planning, financial planning, workforce planning and performance management) are assessed as exceeding expectations while three areas (asset management, procurement and contract management, and risk and audit management) are assessed as meeting expectations. The report also identifies several areas as presenting opportunities for improvement and monitoring throughout 2024/25.
The following were points of discussion by the Committee –
The Committee was further advised as follows –
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Internal Audit Update PDF 314 KB To present the report of the Head of Audit and Risk. Minutes: The report of the Head of Audit and Risk providing an update as at 30 June, 2024 on the audits completed since the previous update as at 31 March 2024 was presented for the Committee’s consideration. The report also set out the current workload of Internal Audit and its priorities for the short to medium term going forward. Members of the Committee were provided under separate cover with copies of the three internal audit reports finalised since the last update in relation to Destination – Maritime Team – Income Processes (Reasonable Assurance); IT Audit – IT Supplier Management (Limited Assurance); Robustness of estimates and adequacy of reserves assessment (Section 25 of the Local Government Act 2003) (Reasonable Assurance). The Limited Assurance report was accompanied by an action plan to address the issues/risks raised by the internal audit review.
The following were points of discussion by the Committee –
The Committee was advised as follows –
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National Fraud Initiative 2022-24 Outcomes Progress Report PDF 306 KB To present the report of the Head of Audit and Risk. Minutes: The report of the Head of Audit and Risk setting out the latest outcomes from the National Fraud Initiative in relation to Council Tax Reduction and Housing Benefit was presented for the Committee’s consideration. The report detailed the progress made by the Council in responding to the findings of the NFI and the relevant outcomes including the financial outcome estimated to be savings of £3,838.
The following was a point of discussion by the Committee –
The Committee was advised that the Council did historically have a Counter Fraud service before the function was centralised by the DWP leading to the loss of the resource for the Council. The Council receives grant funding from the DWP to administer housing benefit on its behalf. This funding is reducing as claimants transition from Housing Benefit to Universal Credit. However the Council remains responsible for assessing claims under the Council Tax Reduction scheme which means that the caseload is not reducing at the same rate as the grant funding. The Council is using the DWP grant to focus on processing those applications meaning there is currently no resource available to assign to benefit fraud work. The Council has allocated resources to Council Tax to investigate single person discount claims and non-payment of the premium and the latter has generated additional income for the Council.
It was resolved to confirm that the Governance and Audit Committee takes assurance from the report that the council, taking account of the need to prioritise its resources, is seeking to actively embrace opportunities provided by the National Fraud Initiative to use data analytics to strengthen both the prevention and detection of fraud.
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Review of Forward Work Programme PDF 126 KB To present the report of the Head of Audit and Risk. Minutes: The report of the Head of Audit and Risk incorporating the Committee’s Forward Work Programme and Training Programme for 2024/25 was presented for the Committee’s consideration. One change to the scheduling of reports was highlighted by the Head of Audit and Risk.
It was noted by the Committee that the proposed agenda for the Committee’s September 2024 meeting is especially busy; it was suggested that the Head of Audit and Risk in consultation with the Chair consider the feasibility of rescheduling some of the items of business proposed for the meeting and/or designating items for information only where appropriate.
It was resolved to accept the Forward Work Programme proposed for 2024/25 as meeting the Committee’s responsibilities in accordance with its terms of reference.
Additional action - Head of Audit and Risk in consultation with the Chair to review the business scheduled for the Committee’s September 2024 meeting with a view to streamlining the agenda.
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