Agenda item

Purpose: To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 27 January 2016 (copy enclosed).

That, subject to the amendment, the minutes be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

The minutes of the meeting held on 27 January 2016 were submitted.

Accuracy

Minute number 43: Consultants - Councillor Arnold Woolley pointed out a typographical error in the eighth paragraph which should read ‘other Members indicated their agreement’.

Matters Arising

Minute number 43: Consultants - Councillor Woolley referred to his comments on the need to demand rigorous answers to any actions which remained outstanding from their due date.

The Chief Executive said that the Chairman had circulated to the Committee the report on consultants submitted to the Corporate Resources Overview & Scrutiny Committee, which focussed on value for money.  The report gave details of consultants of £25K or more in value engaged during 2015/16, totalling just over £400K.  All had supporting business cases in place to meet objectives and to demonstrate value for money.  Whilst the Chief Executive had undertaken work on key controls such as business case approvals, the Internal Audit Manager had focussed on operational details and general controls including improvements to accountancy coding.  A full report on controls for the use of consultants would be brought to the Audit Committee in July, including the latest information on spend.

The Chief Officer (Governance) said that the report shared had demonstrated overall improved controls on the use of consultants, pointing out the roles of Overview & Scrutiny and the Audit Committee on their respective areas.

The Internal Audit Manager agreed, saying that some controls had already been introduced, such as the requisite approval according to contract value.  He referred to the key findings of the officer group on the approval of business cases on clarifying the reasons for appointing a consultant and reviewing outcomes.  The P2P system was now being used for appointing consultants, involving verification by the Procurement team on the supporting business cases and use of correct accounting codes, with any deficiencies referred back to the manager.  The guidance on the controls of use of consultants circulated to officers and users of the P2P system had also been made available on the intranet, and this would form the basis of the report to be brought to the next meeting of the Committee.  It was agreed that this guidance would also be shared with Members.

When asked by Councillor Ian Dunbar about the Overview & Scrutiny report, the Chairman explained that this had been circulated for information however Members were able to raise queries under this item if they wished.

The Chief Executive spoke about the different uses of terminology and provided clarity on the definition of agency workers, and interim appointments which were used sparingly by the Council.  He gave assurances that the sensitivity of the issue and need for accountability had been highlighted with officers, in response to the important issues identified by the Audit Committee.  When asked about the miscoding errors, he explained that this had arisen from routine legitimate spend being allocated to generic codes, as indicated in the formal statement given by the Corporate Finance Manager.

The Chief Officer (Governance) gave a reminder that a follow-up report on the use of consultants would be received at the next meeting of the Committee.

RESOLVED:

That, subject to the amendment, the minutes be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.