Issue - meetings

That the Committee is assured that expenditure on consultants is being controlled and the Council is achieving value for money.

The Chief Executive presented the report on the annual review of compliance with processes to give assurance on the effective management of consultancy spend.  This included an evaluation of the work, value and impact obtained from the small number of consultants engaged at a value of £25K or more in 2016/17.

The Committee was reminded of background to the issue where previous audit work had identified mis-coding of consultancy spend on the general ledger which had led to inaccurate reports on the cost of consultants and challenge by the Committee.  The new processes for authorising and managing consultancy spend were supported by business cases to assess need prior to the engagement, whilst post-assignment reviews demonstrated how objectives had been met and identified learning for passporting to future Council projects.  The outcome of the audit review in 2016 gave assurance on the effectiveness of the new system in controlling and monitoring use of consultants and associated spend.

The Chief Executive said that the £81,824 total spend on consultants in 2016/17 was a reflection of the work undertaken and demonstrated low spend by Flintshire on consultancy in comparison to other councils.  He provided explanation on the one consultant with a value over £25K for the period and also on the ‘live’ consultancy engagement in 2017/18 which was a review and maintenance of the pay and grading structure needed under the Single Status agreement.

The Internal Audit Manager explained the advisory nature of the audit which gave assurance of good controls on business cases and accuracy of coding, with rigorous challenge applied to business cases and extensions to contracts.  She noted that a shift in culture was a contributing factor to the outcomes.

In acknowledging this, Councillor Johnson suggested a regular review of the £25K threshold for consultancy engagements requiring approval by the Chief Executive (as well as the Chief Officer) to assess whether it could be increased.  The Chief Executive said that this could be accommodated annually as part of Financial or Contract Procedure Rules.

In response to comments from Councillor Woolley about the monitoring of consultant spend below the £25K threshold, assurance was given that all requests required a business case and authorisation by the relevant Chief Officer and were recorded on the database.

Following information on the consultants engaged by the Council in 2016/17, officers noted Councillor Johnson’s request that future reports include details of whether the firms were national or local.

RESOLVED:

That the Committee is assured that expenditure on consultants is being controlled and the Council is achieving value for money.