Agenda item

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting of the Audit & Governance Committee held on 20 September 2017.

Members considered the minutes of the meeting of the Audit and Governance Committee held on 20 September 2017. The following amendments were proposed:

·        The addition of the following to the end of minute 22 (minutes) “The Chair clarified that if members have an item that they want actioning from the minutes they need to raise this and include it into the forward plan”

·        An amendment to the second paragraph of minute 23 (public participation) from ...22 February 2017 as follows “expressing in the strongest terms her concerns that the LGA Conduct report had been withheld from the Committee. She requested members to demand immediate release of the unredacted report as the delay was further undermining trust and confidence in the officers that Councillors rely upon”

·        The move of the following from the main text of minute 24 (Mazars Audit Completion Report) to form resolution (b) of minute 24: “The Monitoring Officer will look into options for technical mechanisms to ensure that councillors and officers above a certain level update their declarations of interests at least on an annual basis and report options back to the committee.”

·        The addition of the following resolution to minute 25 (Annual financial report): “(c) That the Finance & Procurement Manager investigates, if general information can be provided for items for which the council has currently not obtain valuations, but which have an estimated higher value e.g. over £100,000”

·        The addition of the following to the end of paragraph one in minute 26 (LGA procurement peer challenge): “Mr Satvinder Rana, Programme Manager from the LGA was present in the meeting to present the report”

·        The addition of the following to the end of paragraph two in minute 26: “Mr Rana also stressed that he is not a procurement expert and cannot answer specific and detailed questions in this regard”

·        The addition of the following paragraph prior to the resolutions of minute 26: “In response to Members’ queries, the Deputy Chief Executive and the Finance and Procurement Manager confirmed that for every single payment that the council conducts, there is the audit trail in the finance system, who authorised a payment and who raised the payment”.

·        The addition of the following resolution to minute 26: “(c) That the second report will be published for the committee as soon as possible, if necessary with the full version seen in private session and a redacted copy being public”

·        The addition of the following prior to the resolutions of minute 28 (Audit and counter fraud monitoring): “In response to Members’ queries, the Head of Internal Audit explained the reasoning why taxi licensing is newly added to the plan.”

·        The addition of the following resolution to minute 28: “(b) That the Head of Internal Audit (Veritau Ltd) considers member’s suggestions to the layout of the report to enhance the usability for members.”

·        The addition of “and the Director of City & Environmental Services” to the first paragraph of minute 29 (Monitor 2 2017/18) and the removal of the following “It was agreed that one KCR would be presented to the Committee at a time and that the order of presentations would be chronological, i.e. KCR1 (Financial Pressures) would be presented at the next Committee’s meeting, followed by KCR2.”

·        The addition of the following resolutions to minute 29: “(d) That the committee was satisfied there was sufficient assurance in relation to the governance of major projects, and the Major Project Update annex was no longer required, but that the major project information still needs to be made publicly available on a regular basis. (e) That in addition to the overview of the KCR’s which are currently presented to the Committee in Annex A, it would be beneficial to provide a more in-depth analysis of each KCR. It was agreed that one KCR would be presented to the Committee at a time and that the order of presentations would be chronological, i.e. KCR1 (Financial Pressures) would be presented at the next Committee’s meeting, followed by KCR2.”

·        The move of the following from the main text of minute 30 (Overview of the constitution) to form resolution (b) of minute 30: “The task and finish group would be formed in order to consider the scope of work in relation to potential improvements to the Constitution. Such work could involve public consultations. The Members of the group would include Cllr Steward, Cllr Derbyshire, Cllr Kramm and one Liberal Democrat Member.”

·        The addition of the following reason relating to the resolution added to minute 30: “(b) To support the Monitoring Officer to review the operation of the Constitution to ensure that the aims and principles of the Constitution are given full effect.”

·        The insertion of the following after the first sentence of minute 31 (York Environmental Services Consultancy): “The Head of Public Protection and the Assistant Director Planning and Public Protection were in attendance to answer Members’ questions.”

·        The addition of the following resolutions to minute 31: “(b) That Director of Customer and Corporate Service seeks assurance that this non-for-profit service is covered by the Council’s public liability insurance. (c) That the relevant Executive member should be involved in the further strategic development of the consultancy including changing it into a for-profit enterprise.”

·        The addition of the following resolution to minute 32 (Forward Plan): “(c) That the committee would like an update on the recruitment of the second independent person of the committee.”

Resolved:  That the minutes of the meeting held on 20 September 2017 be approved and signed by the Chair with the amendments listed above and with an advisory from the Deputy Chief Executive & Director of Customer & Corporate Services regarding the appending of the Leader’s statement.