Agenda item

To consider a report by the Head of Legal, HR & Democratic Services (copy attached) for Council to consider the work of the Corporate Governance Committee for the municipal year 2018/2019.

Councillor Barry Mellor (Chair of Corporate Governance Committee) introduced the Annual Report of the Corporate Governance Committee (previously circulated) to inform all members of the work of the Committee for the municipal year 2018/19.

The Council was statutorily required under the provisions of the Local Government (Wales) Measure 2011, to have an Audit Committee.  The Corporate Governance Committee (the Committee) was the Council’s designated committee for that purpose.

The Council’s Constitution provided that the membership of the Committee was made up of six elected Members on a politically balanced basis.  There was no requirement for the Committee to be politically balanced.  There was a statutory requirement to have at least one independent lay member of the Committee and the current lay member was Mr Paul Whitham.

Each meeting was attended by the Council’s s151 Officer, Monitoring Officer and Head of Internal Audit or their representatives.  In addition, each meeting was attended by officers of the Wales Audit Office (WAO).

During the period covered by the report, the Committee had received a number of internal annual reports on matters relating to governance.  These had included:

·         Annual Governance Statement Report

·         Corporate Health and Safety Annual Report

·         Senior Information Risk Officer (SIRO) Annual Report

·         Whistleblowing Annual Report.

The Committee also received a number of reports relating to financial matters each year.  These had included:

·         Statement of Accounts – there was a large amount of information involved in the accounts and the draft was presented to the Committee in one meeting before summer recess and the final statement of accounts presented for approval to the Committee in September each year.

·         Treasury Management – the Committee receives two reports each year.

The Committee also received external regulatory reports. These had included:

·         Wales Audit Office Annual Improvement Report – no significant recommendations for change were made and the report was overall very positive about the Council.  There were six “proposals” for improvement which had been presented to Council together with the actions in respect of each of those.

·         WAO Annual Audit Letter – WAO were satisfied that the Council had appropriate arrangements in place to secure economy, efficiency and effectiveness in its use of resources and no significant issues had been identified which would impact on the 2018-19 accounts or key financial systems.

·         Overview and Scrutiny – the report concluded that the Council’s overview and scrutiny function was responding well to current challenges, however, limited capacity to support scrutiny could hinder future progress. 

·         Local Government Use of Data – the report found that Council had the foundations in place to make better use of data but needed to improve how data was analysed and presented to the decision makers.

The Committee also received regular reports from the Chief Internal Auditor on the progress made against the Internal Audit Plan which was approved by the Committee.

The Committee also undertook a self-assessment of its own performance compared to current best practice.  The assessment was against a checklist from the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA guidance “Audit Committees – Practical Guidance for Local Authorities and Police 2018 Edition”.

The Committee had considered its name as part of the assessment and had concluded that the name should include reference to the important function of being the Council’s Audit committee as required by the Local Government (Wales) Measure 2011.  The Committee had recommended that it be known as the Corporate Governance and Audit Committee.

Councillor Barry Mellor took the opportunity to thank the representatives of the WAO and all officers who attend the Corporate Governance meetings.  In particular, he recognised the amount of work undertaken by the Internal Audit team.  Thanks were extended to each member of the Committee as the agendas were often lengthy but the Committee members were always well prepared for the meeting.  Lead Members were also thanked for their attendance at Committees and for their support.

Members expressed their gratitude to the Chair and Committee members of Corporate Governance for all their hard work.

RESOLVED that:

·         Members of Full Council noted the content of the Annual Report of the Corporate Governance Committee

·         The Committee be renamed the Corporate Governance and Audit Committee