Issue - meetings

That the contents of the report be noted.

The Finance Manager - Technical Accountancy presented supplementary financial information to accompany the Draft Statement of Accounts 2014/15.  Members were reminded that the information on consultants and non-permanent posts across the Council showed the theoretical annualised costs if those individuals had been employed for the whole year, as well as the actual costs incurred.

Following a question by Councillor Alison Halford, the Chief Officer (Governance) provided information on the IT work carried out by System Centre consultancy to help upgrade the Council’s servers.  Due to the scale of the project, external resources had been necessary to complete this significant piece of work as a one-off project.

In response to a query on costs incurred for the Occupational Health Physician, the Chief Executive said that the service was being delivered by a GP for one day per week, which was a more cost-effective model than the previous arrangement.  The service was being shared by Wrexham County Borough Council on a commercial basis.

Following a question from Councillor Ian Dunbar, the Chief Executive advised that some costs, such as the Occupational Health service, were ongoing whereas others such as the SHARP Procurement Manager represented one-off costs.  This complex, high-risk project required specific expertise not currently available within the Council however that experience had been passed to officers during the project.

Mr. Paul Williams queried the remuneration level for the Principal Accountant (Waste).  The Chief Executive explained that the individual had been transferred to the Council under TUPE regulations which offered protection and had left the Council.  The costs incurred were likely to be a combination of salary and redundancy payments.

RESOLVED:

That the contents of the report be noted.