Agenda, decisions and minutes

            That Councillors Bernie Attridge, Dave Cox and Ian Dunbar be permitted as substitutes for the meeting.   

In line with the Constitution requirement, the Committee agreed to allow Councillor Ian Dunbar to substitute for Councillor Glyn Banks, Councillor Bernie Attridge to substitute for Councillor Alan Diskin and for Councillor Dave Cox to substitute for Councillor Ian Roberts.  It was confirmed that Councillors Attridge, Cox and Dunbar had undertaken the necessary audit training. 

                        Councillor Attridge confirmed that Councillor Dunbar would be a permanent replacement on the Committee in place of Councillor Diskin.  The Chairman welcomed Councillor Dunbar to the Committee. 

                        Councillor Haydn Bateman apologised for not attending the drop-in sessions held for Members on the Statement of Accounts due to undertaking Council business.   

            RESOLVED:

            That Councillors Bernie Attridge, Dave Cox and Ian Dunbar be permitted as substitutes for the meeting.   

No declarations of interest were made.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 15 July 2015 (copy enclosed).

That the minutes be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.   

The minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 15 July 2015 had been circulated to Members with the agenda.

Councillor Alison Halford referred to page 4 and 5 of the minutes and her comments about the increase in the precept for the North Wales Police & Crime Commissioner.  She said that she did not remember the Chief Executive giving the answer that was recorded in the minutes.  At the meeting she had commented that the Council precept partly paid for the Police & Crime Commissioner but the Chief Executive had not agreed.  She felt that it was a drain on Council Tax and she had discussed the matter with the local Assembly Member Mark Isherwood.  She had been advised that the Police & Crime Commissioner was funded through three separate sources, one of which was the Council precept.  In response to a comment from Councillor Bernie Attridge, Councillor Halford said that the minutes did not reflect what was said at the meeting and that the Chief Executive had added in his own opinion of how the Police & Crime Commissioner was funded. 

In response, the Chief Executive said that there was a need to deal with the comments and the insinuation made by Councillor Halford and added that the minute did reflect what had been said at the meeting.  The issue had also been raised when Mr. Winston Roddick, the Police & Crime Commissioner, had attended the County Council meeting held on 23^rd July 2015.  The Chief Executive recalled Mr. Roddick saying that funding for his role was drawn from National Government.  Councillor Halford thanked the Chief Executive for his explanation.  The Chief Executive added that the explanation had been provided on a number of occasions and that was why it was not included in the Statement of Accounts, and Mr. Roddick had confirmed that his role was not directly funded from Flintshire County Council. 

On the issue of the minutes, the Chief Executive explained that he had provided the response shown and in advising of the process of when officers saw the minutes and their input into them, he asked the Chief Officer (Governance) to provide further information on the issue.  The Chief Officer explained that the minutes preparation process involved the Committee Officer taking notes at the meeting and then preparing the draft minutes for circulation to officers.  He advised that officers provided explanation where needed and if changes were suggested which the Committee Officer was not comfortable with, then this would be queried with the officer.  The draft minutes were circulated for completeness, not for officers at the meeting to add in their own views or opinions. 

Following a question from Mr. Paul Williams on compulsory or voluntary redundancy packages, the Chief Executive confirmed that the Council’s policies treated voluntary and compulsory redundancies the same and made redundancy payments for up to a maximum of 45 weeks.  This had been applied by the Council for a number of years and the policy had been re-adopted 18 months ago.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 33.

(a)       That subject to Wales Audit Office (WAO) being able to confirm its unqualified opinion, the statement of accounts for 2014/15 (including the amendments and corrections circulated by the s.151 Officer) be recommended to Council for approval;

(b)       The Committee recorded its concerns that the issues in the WAO Audit of Financial Statements Report.  It noted that an officer working group was to be established by the Chief Executive to correct the issues in that report (including confirmation that errors in the accounts were not due to underlying errors in the budget), and, having considered the results of that working group, reserved the right to later seek an independent review of processes, if required;

(c)        The Committee considered WAO’s reports: Audit of the Financial Statements – Flintshire County Council, and Audit of the Financial Statements – Clwyd Pension Fund;

(d)       The Committee recommended to Council: the Letter of Representation – Flintshire County Council, and the Letter of Representation – Clwyd Pension Fund; and

(e)       The Committee recommended to Council the Reserves and Balances Protocol. 

The Corporate Finance Manager presented the Statement of accounts for 2014/15 together with the Wales Audit Office (WAO) reports in connection with the audit of the financial statements and Letters of Representation for Flintshire County Council and the Clwyd Pension Fund. 

                        The final accounts incorporated changes agreed by WAO during the course of the Audit, which had been discussed with officers and relevant actions had been taken.  One of the issues arising from the audit of the 2013/14 Accounts was that the Council did not have a clear protocol that set out arrangements for the establishment, discharge and review of its Reserves.  As a result, a Reserves and Balances Protocol was included as Appendix F to the report.  In response to some changes that had been made to the ongoing audit of the accounts and to provide further details on some of the adjustments referred to in the WAO report on the accounts, a briefing note had been circulated in advance of the meeting.  In line with the usual practice, a copy of the final accounts had been included on the agenda for the County Council meeting, to be held in the afternoon, where approval would be sought within the statutory deadline of 30 September.  The Corporate Finance Manager indicated that officers had accepted the findings in the report but explained that none of the issues raised affected the bottom line in the accounts and therefore the outturn position remained unchanged.  He added that WAO had given the accounts an unqualified (clean) opinion.  He commented on the issue of presentation of income figures in some areas but explained that a significant amount of work had been undertaken to resolve the issue and ensure that it did not reoccur in the 2015/16 accounts process.  The report had identified some weaknesses in the strength of internal controls relating to the processing of payroll.  An internal audit had also highlighted this as an area of concern and an action plan was in place.  The Corporate Finance Manager advised that more detailed checking would be built into the timetable for next year.  The issues that had been raised in the 2013/14 Statement of Accounts had been resolved satisfactorily.         

                        Councillor Alison Halford expressed concern about the level of paperwork that Members were required to read on their Ipads, and added that this could result in the Audit Committee failing in its duty to audit the accounts appropriately.  Following a short adjournment to allow Members to be provided with paper copies of the Statement of Accounts report, the meeting resumed at 10.35am.   

            Audit of Financial Statements report for Flintshire County Council 2014/15

                        Mr. John Herniman of WAO acknowledged the production of the accounts and the complex work involved.  All of the issues that had been raised had been addressed but he added that there were some issues that were outstanding in relation to payroll samples and the categorisation of income and expenditure in the Comprehensive Income and Expenditure Statement (CIES).  It was anticipated that these  ...  view the full minutes text for item 34.

That the report be noted.                          

The Internal Audit Manager presented the report to update Members on the progress of the Internal Audit department.  He detailed the background to the report and explained that transition to a new software package had resulted in a number of audit reviews which had exceeded their budgeted time.  The delays would become less as the team became more familiar with the system and this would be closely monitored to ensure that the pace of completion was picked up for the remainder of the year.  In the first five months, 55% of the annual budgeted time for work on a number of investigations and National Fraud Initiative work had taken place.  The implementation of the integrated audit software was continuing and recommendation tracking through the system would commence shortly. 

                        All reports finalised since the last committee meeting were shown in Appendix C and in referring to the ‘red’ assurance on the Schools Thematic Review, the Internal Audit Manager provided details of the schools that had been visited and the high and medium level recommendations made.  Concerns about Payroll had been raised earlier as part of the discussions on the Statement of Accounts but the Payroll review undertaken by the Internal Audit team had looked at the overall control of the section.  A number of issues had been raised by both the team and the Wales Audit Office (WAO) and a follow-up report on the work of the Group identified earlier by the Chief Executive would be considered by the Committee at its meeting in January 2016. 

Appendix D showed the responses that had been received when tracking recommendations.  For recommendations that had not been implemented on time, the relevant Chief Officer was required to confirm that the reason and the new date were both acceptable to them.  It was also necessary to report on how the risk was being managed before the recommendation was implemented.  The status of outstanding recommendations that were more than two years old were reported and these related to Procurement, Main Accounting, Enforcement and Capital Programme.  The recommendations were still being actioned but had required long-term solutions and most of the long-standing recommendations would be addressed by the end of the year.  The Internal Audit performance indicators were reported on page 42 and the return of client satisfaction questionnaires had improved from 14% at quarter 4 to 53% at quarter 1.  Appendix F provided details of new referrals that had been received, investigations that were still ongoing and investigations that had been completed.   

The Internal Audit Manager commented on the Whistleblowing policies in schools and the concerns that had been expressed by the Committee over the adoption of the policies.  All schools had been contacted to confirm whether they held a policy and to provide a copy for review and the results would be passed to the Chief Officer (Education and Youth) for his team to follow up as necessary. 

Councillor Bernie Attridge raised significant concern about the number of days taken for departments to return draft  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35.

That the report be accepted. 

The Internal Audit Manager presented an update report on actions carried out from points raised at previous Audit Committee meetings.  It was noted that most actions had been undertaken and there were no concerns with the report.   

            RESOLVED:

That the report be accepted. 

That the Forward Work Programme as amended be approved. 

The Internal Audit Manager presented the report to consider the Forward Work Programme for the next year. 

                        He advised that a report on the set up of the Group to consider the finance analysis would be included for the January 2016 meeting. 

                        Councillor Bernie Attridge suggested that a training session on Member Ipads be held.  The Chairman advised that a training session had been offered for the Committee prior to the June 2015 meeting. 

            RESOLVED:

That the Forward Work Programme as amended be approved. 

                        There were no members of the public or press in attendance.