Items
No. |
Item |
115. |
Apologies for absence
Minutes:
An apology for absence was received from Cllr
Emma Morley and Cllr Elizabeth
Mulheran; Cllr Brian Francis and Cllr Lyn Milner attended as their
respective substitutes.
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116. |
To sign the minutes of the previous meeting. PDF 104 KB
Minutes:
The minutes of the meeting on Tuesday, 20 July
2021 were agreed and signed by the Chair.
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117. |
To declare any interests members may have in the items contained on this agenda. When declaring an interest a member must state what their interest is.
Minutes:
Cllr Sarah Gow declared an Other Significant Interest as an
appointed Directors of Rosherville
Limited, the Council’s Local Authority Trading
Company.
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118. |
Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman Annual Review Letter 2020/21 PDF 84 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Service Manager, Town
Centre & Culture Services provided the Committee with an update
on the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman’s Annual
Review Letter for Gravesham and highlighted the
following:
- The Local Government
& Social Care Ombudsman (LG&SCO) publish an annual review
letter summarising the complaints and enquiries they have dealt
with in relation to Gravesham, along with any action taken and
whether the complaint was
investigated.
- For year ending 31
March 2021, a total of 11 complaints or
enquires were received, the majority relating to Housing, Planning,
Environmental, Highway and Adult Social Care.
- Due to the pandemic,
the Ombudsmen extended their timescales for dealing with
complaints. Gravesham’s numbers
were slightly lower than previous years but continued to respond
within their set timescales.
- Of those 11 contacts,
decisions were made for 8 of them as set
out below. The remaining 3 cases were
not closed during the 2020-21 financial year and will therefore be
reported in the next annual review letter.
- Advice was given for
3 contacts
- 4 were referred to the Council as
premature, i.e. the complaint process had not been
concluded.
- 1 complaint was
investigated but not upheld as there was no finding of
maladministration
- It is also worth Members noting that
the Corporate Complaint Procedure has recently been reviewed and
changes introduced to recognise good practice and guidance; in
particular the Housing Ombudsman recommendation that complaint
procedures should not have more than 2 stages. Gravesham currently
has a 3-stage process which was
implemented in September 2011. Following a recent review, changes
were identified to reflect best practice, ensure the procedure
remains fit for purpose, and more importantly, continues as an
effective mechanism for putting things right and learning from
complaints, therefore, Gravesham will revert back to a 2 stage
process.
Following Members comments and questions, the
Service Manager, Town Centre & Culture Services highlighted the
following:
- With reference to the
letter provided by the Chair, Commission for Local Administration
in England it was encouraging to see the figure of upheld
investigated complaints was 0%, is this comparable with other Local
Authorities? The Service Manager, Town
Centre and Culture Services informed the Committee that this figure
is comparable to similar sized but not neighbouring
Authorities. Kent Authorities are
currently using the 2 stage complaint
process.
- The Chair asked why
Housing has the most complaints and the Service Manager, Town
Centre and Culture Services explained they could be enquiries
rather than complaints (as the Ombudsmen only contact us when they
require specific information about a case) but the level of Housing
related enquiries is proportional based on the size of the
stock.
The
Chair thanked the Service Manager, Town Centre and Culture Services
and the Committee noted the report which was for information and to
support transparency and learning from complaints.
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119. |
Audit & Counter Fraud Update PDF 81 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The
Head of Internal Audit and Counter Fraud Shared Service (Chief
Audit Executive) provided the Committee with an update on the work,
outputs and performance of the Audit & Counter Fraud Team for
the period 1 April 2021 to 31 July 2021 including:
- Resources – how resources
have been used during this time and the
impact of sickness, resignations and a period of
vacancy.
- Results of planned Audit and Counter Fraud work
– all reviews from 2020-21 have now been
finalised and progress with the reviews on the 2021-22 plan is
included in the update.
- Quality Assurance and Improvement Programme
– PM13a – proportion of agreed assurance
assignments – delivered is now 25% and PM13b underway is now
13%.
- Review of Audit and Counter Fraud Plan – there is a currently projected loss of approximately 38
days from expected audit resources. One service has requested that
a review be postponed to 2022-23, which
will account for 15 of the days lost, so a request for the review
of the Performance Management framework to be deferred until
2022-23 is detailed in section seven.
- Recommendations – the report
contains details of progress with all recommendations and specific
updates for all those more than six months overdue. Management Team
have agreed revised implementation dates for a number of these
recommendations where there have been circumstances beyond the
control of the service since the original dates were agreed.
Following Members comments and questions, the
Head of Internal Audit and Counter Fraud Shared
Service (Chief Audit Executive) highlighted the
following:
·
In regards
to the IT Asset Management and the reason for the red opinion, the
Head of Internal Audit and Counter Fraud Shared Service (Chief
Audit Executive) reminded the Committee that the findings for the
review were included in the annual report, which was brought to the June Committee. The pandemic was the main driver for the lack of
compliance with usual controls. The need to roll out new kit as
quickly as possible to enable staff members to work from home, so
the usual procedures were relaxed. The
IT team are currently working on getting records brought up to
date. The Chair explained to the
Committee that IT had attended a previous meeting and discussed
the Covid-19 Pandemic assets.
Members approved the amendments
to the agreed work plan as detailed in section seven of appendix 2
and endorsed the revised implementation dates for overdue
recommendations as detailed in section eight of appendix
2.
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120. |
National Fraud Initiative Update PDF 114 KB
Minutes:
The
Head of Internal Audit and Counter Fraud Shared Service (Chief
Audit Executive) presented the Committee with an update on the work
completed in relation to the data matches received as part of the
National Fraud Initiative Exercises 2019-20 and 2020-21
including.
- As of 31 August, there
were still four matches from the 2019-20 exercise open but these
have since been closed following
completion of enquiries.
- This means the final
outturn from the exercise was the removal of 86 single person
discounts, eight of which were replaced
with alternative discounts, usually because the second adult was a
student. This has resulted in additional liability of approximated
£87,513 and an additional £38,387 in future
years.
- Progress in relation to
the 2020-21 exercise is more limited than the service would have
hoped at this point in the year but the overhang of the delayed
start to 2019-20 exercise, as well as the periods of vacancy within
the counter fraud team have had a significant impact. The new
intelligence analyst is now in post, so the service are confident
that there will be more progress to report in the next update to
the Committee.
Following Members comments and questions, the
Head of Internal Audit and Counter Fraud Shared
Service (Chief Audit Executive) highlighted the
following:
- Item 1.3
Housing, (tenancies, right to buy and waiting list) the reference
should be waiting register not waiting list. The Head of Internal
Audit and Counter Fraud Shared Service (Chief Audit Executive) will
amend in future reports.
The
Chair thanked the Head of Internal Audit and Counter Fraud Shared
Service (Chief Audit Executive) and the Committee noted the
report.
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121. |
External Audit 2019/20 & Draft Accounts 2020/21
Minutes:
The Assistant Director
(Corporate Services) gave a verbal update and highlighted the
following:
- The
external audit for 2019-20 has not yet been
concluded. The two outstanding
items are the accounting treatment of the St George’s
Shopping Centre and the valuation of HRA dwellings. External advice
has been sought with regard to the St
George’s Shopping Centre transaction and once the Council has
received this external advice, Members will be updated.
- The
finance team are drafting a statement of accounts for 2020-21,
however until the external audit of the 2019-20 accounts has
finished the draft statements cannot be finalised. The finance team are working closely with
the external auditors to bring matters to a
close.
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122. |
General Fund Budget Monitoring Q1 PDF 188 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The
Principal Accountant (General Fund) presented the Committee with a
report that updated them on actual performance against the approved
Revenue and Capital budgets for 2021/22, including projected
variances agreed or identified through budgetary control
activity.
The
Principal Accountant (General Fund) updated Members on other key
areas of financial performance that may have an impact on the
Council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy, Medium Term
Financial Plan (MTFP), or Financial Statements
including:
- The
General Fund Q1 2020-21 has had minimal movement against the budget
in Q1 and at this early stage
many nil variances are therefore being reported. At the end of Q1,
there is a projected adverse variance for the year of
£43,180.
- The
effects of the COVID-19 pandemic will take some time to show in the
accounts. It is important to
note that significant risks to the General Fund’s financial
position continue to come from the lack of clarity regarding the
long-term future of local government funding and the financial
consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic as central government
supports starts to unwind in 2021-22.
- There is a
favourable variance of £81k in the Corporate Services
Directorate. This is due to
expenditure within the General Fund Capital Programme during
2020-21 being lower than originally budgeted, which meant that
there was a reduced borrowing requirement than initially
envisaged.
- The working balances and
reserves amount totals £11.65m, this includes the minimum
general fund of £2m and additional general fund reserve of
£3.25m gives a forecast of £6.4m.
- The general working
balance for earmarked reserves for the general fund is
£11.77m. £4.4m relates to
the budgeted drawdown within the NNDR Collection Fund. This is a
unique situation for 2021-22, and is due to Collection Fund
accounting arrangements arising from the Business Rates position
attributable to the Covid-19 Pandemic in 2020-21.
- The
General Fund Capital Programme on page 67 set out the £57m
expenditure with £6m of actual expenditure which is centred on land acquisitions
and large projects.
This report is for
information only
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123. |
Housing Revenue Account Budget Monitoring Q1 PDF 175 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The
Principal Accountant (Housing & Exchequer) presented the
Committee with a report that updated members on actual performance
against the approved Revenue and Capital budgets for 2021/22,
including known variances agreed or identified through budgetary
control activity.
Members
were updated on other key arears of financial performance that may
impact on the Council’s HRA Business Plan or Financial
Statements
The
Principal Accountant (Housing & Exchequer) outlined the key
points from the report and drew Members attention to
the following:
- Under
3.1.1 Housing Revenue Account at the end of Q1 the forecast
reflects a net favourable variance to the original budget.
- Under 3.2.1 Vacancy
Management the original budget was £100,000 and at the end of
Q1 the actual staff spend was £135k lower than originally
budgeted.
- Under 3.5.1 Interest Cost
Savings due to the delays in the new build programme, there was a
lower external borrowing requirement in 2020-21. This has reduced
the anticipated cost of borrowing in the current financial year,
resulting in a favourable variance.
- Under
3.9.1 the HRA working balances is expected to maintain its forecast
of £3m.
- Under 4
Housing Capital Programme the scheme totals £24m with the
General Fund Housing coming in at £2.9m. However, officers
have started to indicate supply chain issues which may affect the
delivery of the 2021-22 Housing Capital programme and the revenue
repairs and maintenance spend. Further
details will be reported in the Q2 monitoring report.
- Under section 4.5.3 the
report details progress of the current new build programme and a
summary of the number of properties that have been delivered since
the original new build programme scheme in 2012.
- Details of the progress
for Disabled Facility Grants was discussed.
Following Members comments and questions
the Principal Accountant (Housing &
Exchequer) highlighted the following:
- With the
huge rise in costs for raw materials has this will be factored in
to future budgets. The Principal
Accountant (Housing and Exchequer) explained that this particular
budget was set in February 2021 and the expectations of future
costs was filtering through. At the
budget setting session for 2022-23 these factors will be taken into
account.
- In section
4.9.4 regarding the distribution of the 56 Disabled Facility Grants
awaiting approval. The Principal Accountant (Housing and Exchequer)
explained that it is a long process from the time Gravesham
received the application to the time the grant can be awarded and
the team is working hard to process these grants. The Principal
Accountant confirmed that Housing Officers would be approached for
comment and this will be circulated by email outside of the
meeting.
- The Chair
thanked the team for their work during the Covid-19 Pandemic
and making the processes so resilient.
The
Chair thanked the Principal Accountant (Housing & Exchequer)
and the Committee noted the report.
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