Agenda item

That Councillor A. Woolley be appointed Chair of the Committee for the rest of the meeting.

The Chair read out a press release which she had circulated in which she stated her intention to adjourn the meeting and the reasons for doing so in relation to the despatch of papers for the Statement of Accounts.  Councillor A. Woolley raised a point of order and asked if any motion to adjourn a meeting must conform to the majority wish or whether the Chair could arbitrarily adjourn the meeting without a vote.

Before a decision could be reached, the Chief Executive said it was important to clarify the statutory obligation of the Council to adopt the accounts before the statutory deadline of 30 September and that if a decision was taken to adjourn the meeting, this would not preclude the process of submitting the Statement of Accounts to full Council for adoption.  It was intended at this meeting to fully report on changes which had been made to the accounts for any observations to be made to Council by the Committee, noting that (1) the accounts had been submitted to the Committee in draft form in July; (2) the accounts had been available for inspection since; and (3) it was standard practice in any accounting year for the draft accounts to be amended to include any material changes which had occurred since their drafting and the recommended changes and amendments of the external auditors.

The Democracy & Governance Manager explained that this was a legally convened meeting and pointed out that whilst the Statement of Accounts had not been made available five clear working days before the meeting, it had in fact been made available five clear days (including Saturday and Sunday) beforehand, which more than complied with legal and Constitutional requirements - the same arrangement as last year.  He advised that Council Procedure Rules did not entitle the Chair to arbitrarily adjourn the meeting.  The Chair could adjourn the meeting in certain circumstances such as to allow time to deal with disturbance by the public, but there were no such circumstances existing.  He confirmed that Procedural Rule 5, whereby notice had been given of the meeting to Council Members, had been followed.

The Chair stated her dissatisfaction that the same arrangement had occurred in the previous year but felt that the Committee was being undermined in its ability to scrutinise and was not willing to proceed with the meeting.

The Chief Executive said that this was not the case and that the preferred position was for the Audit Committee to provide a commentary to Council as was the annual practice.  He had a duty to present the accounts to Council if the Committee chose not to do this.  He said that failure to adopt the accounts within the deadline could incur a penalty and had reputational risks for the Council.

The Head of Finance spoke about the availability of the draft accounts from 17 July 2013 which were then subsequently made available for scrutiny over the summer period, together with drop-in sessions on 12 and 13 September 2013 providing opportunities for all Members to raise queries with officers.  In line with previous practice, Wales Audit Office (WAO) colleagues were in attendance to present their findings and provide a full explanation.

In response to the Chair reiterating her intention to adjourn the meeting, Councillor I.B. Roberts suggested that Members and officers remain as he believed the adjournment to be improper without a vote.  This was seconded by Councillor Woolley.

The Democracy & Governance Manager said that the Chair was entitled to her view but was not able to adjourn the meeting without taking a vote.  He advised that if the Chair was to leave the meeting, in the absence of a Vice-Chair the Committee should appoint a Chair for the meeting from those who were eligible.  The Chair left the meeting at this point.

Councillor Roberts nominated Councillor Woolley as Chair for the meeting which was duly seconded by Councillor Newhouse.  On being put to the vote, this was unanimously carried.

The Chief Executive stressed that despite the timescale, the legal deadline had been met in availability of the agenda papers and assured Members that arrangements were compliant and transparent.

Mr. J. Herniman of WAO referred to the complexity of producing accounts within the statutory deadline, which applied to all authorities.  He said that the report listed the main adjustments which it was intended to go through in detail.  He reminded the Committee that the Council was charged with governance arrangements on approving the accounts and had received the papers in the requisite number of days and that, although not necessary, it was important for the Committee to make a recommendation to Council.

RESOLVED:

That Councillor A. Woolley be appointed Chair of the Committee for the rest of the meeting.