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Contact: Wyn Richards 01597 826375
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Apologies To receive apologies for absence. Minutes: There were no apologies for absence. |
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Disclosures of Interest To receive any disclosures of interest by Members relating to items to be considered at the meeting. Minutes: There were no Declarations of Interest from Members relating to items to be considered on the agenda.
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Minutes and Action Log PDF 106 KB To authorise the Chair to sign the minutes of the previous meeting held as follows:
To receive and consider the Action Log. Additional documents: Minutes: The Chair was authorised to sign the minutes of the previous meeting, held on 30-09-2022, as a correct record.
Issues Discussed: · Questions:
Minutes:
Outcomes: · Head of Finance to email all Members asking them to check what insurance arrangements are in place with outside bodies relating to their membership of those bodies. · That clarification be sought from the Housing Service regarding what action the Council could take regarding empty dwellings.
Decision Tracker:
Comment: · The Chair commented that in relation to the deep dive into the risk of social care provider failure this review was specifically around the commissioning of services and the financial sustainability of providers, rather than a holistic review of social care.
Outcomes: · Review of the Debt Policy to be added to the Committee’s Work Programme. · Risk Deep Dive of Social Care Commissioning and financial sustainability to be added to Work Plan for agenda of meeting on 9th February 2023.
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Annual Governance Statement Assurance PDF 176 KB To receive and consider the report of the Leader and Portfolio Holder for an Open and Transparent Powys and the Annual Governance Statement. Additional documents: Minutes: Documents Considered: · Report of the Leader and Cabinet Member for an Open and Transparent Powys. · Annual Governance Statement.
Issues Discussed: · The statement is centred around the seven CIPFA principles and the SOLACE framework. A level of assurance should be provided for each of the principles to demonstrate the extent to which the Authority judges itself on its performance. An overall assurance should also be provided. · Modification has been made during the last year to the AGS process. · Principle A to F have been scored at substantial and Principle G as Reasonable. The overall assurance is set as Reasonable. · 18 of the 22 planned actions listed have been completed or on schedule with only two rated as red. · In terms of process a review would be undertaken to consider the process for next year and would be recommending to the Cabinet and the Committee an improved process to allow the Committee time for its views to be provided to Cabinet for consideration. · The Leader commented that he had been reassured by the report although there were still improvements to be made such as in relation to Principle G – transparency and accountability.
· Questions:
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Treasury Management - Quarter 2 Report PDF 285 KB To receive and consider the report of the Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Transformation Minutes: Documents Considered: · Report of the Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Transformation.
Issues Discussed: · The report set out the Quarter 2 position at the end of September 2022. · As the bank rate had continued to increase there has been an increase in the short-term money market investment rates and the Council had been holding any surpluses to manage day to day requirements earning interest of around £180k this year. · There was a revised agreement between the Council and Welsh Government in respect of the Global Centre for Rail Excellence which led to the repayment of £15.6m of the £33m repayable funding which the Council held for the project. · The current capital programme is £96m including the Housing Revenue Accounts. · Inflation was having a significant impact on capital schemes. · There had been a large increase in PWLB (Public Works Loans Board) interest rates since the beginning of the year. Last year the Council took out borrowing at a rate of 1.35% over 50 years and this year that same borrowing would have been at just under a rate of 4%. · No debt had been repaid early during the quarter but some loans had been repaid since and would be reported in the next quarter. Some debt that was due to mature had been repaid, £1.5m (PWLB) and £5m from other local authorities. £5m was due for repayment in the next quarter. · Sundry debt increased slightly from that reported in the last quarter. However, it was noted that not all debt could be collected immediately and was deferred, as for example it was set as a charge against a property and therefore only collectable at a future point in time.
· Questions:
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Corporate Fraud and Error - Quarter 3 Report PDF 129 KB To receive and consider the report of the Head of Finance. Minutes: Documents Considered: · Report of the Head of Finance
Issues Discussed: · In the next quarter it was intended to roll out the mandatory Fraud Awareness Training Package to staff and Members. The Service was also planning to roll out Member training conducted by Dyfed Powys Police. · Quarter 3 activity – error review activity work being undertaken. Currently there were 32 fraud cases ongoing, and in 28 cases 4 cases found proven fraud activity. · Section 3.4 – in the next quarter’s report the Service would be seeking an indication from the Committee regarding the team’s for the next year. · Section 3 – Gains. The overpayment gains to date were £210k across all the team’s work, which were recoverable errors. Income gains is where the work of the team had stopped an error or fraud multiplied over a 52 week period. · Investigations had not produced anything of significant concern to bring to the attention of the Committee. · Section 6 was an overview of the structural changes and work to respond to the Audit Wales and SWAP recommendations. Much of the activity had been completed or was on track with some requiring further progress.
· Questions:
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Pension Fund Accounts 2021-22 PDF 83 KB To receive and consider the Pension Fund Accounts, ISA260 and Letter of Representation. Additional documents:
Minutes: Documents Considered: · Pension Fund Accounts · ISA 260 · Letter of Representation
Issues Discussed: · The Pensions and Investment Committee had delegated authority to sign the Pension Fund Accounts. · In the ISO 260 there were two corrected mis-statements relating to a reclassification of reinvested income and level 3 financial disclosures. Adjustments had been made to the accounts following the advice received. · Once the accounts were signed by the Chair and the Head of Finance, the annual report and accounts would be considered by the Pensions and Investment Committee and published by 1st December, 2022. · ISA 260 and Letter of Representation. · The key message on page 247 was that the Auditor General intended to send out an unqualified opinion again for the year. · The Auditor General would sign off his opinion on 29th November which would allow the Council to publish the accounts by 1st December. · The Committee was advised that the audit engagement lead would be Derwyn Owen replacing Clare James. · The audit timetable this year had been compacted due to Covid, but with the assistance of Council staff was completed on time. · Letter of representation – there was nothing specific to be brought to the attention of the Committee. · There were no uncorrected statements in the accounts. · None of the amendments made affected the net assets of the pension fund.
· Questions:
Outcomes: · That the Governance & Audit Committee approves the 2021-22 Pension Fund Accounts and Letter of Representation which can be formally signed by Chair of the Committee and the Section 151 Officer. · That the Governance and Audit Committee approves the 2021-22 Annual Governance Statement which can be formally signed by the Leader of the Council and the Chief Executive.
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Springing Forward Workforce Management PDF 782 KB To receive and consider the Audit Wales report – Springing Forward Workforce Management”. Additional documents:
Minutes: Documents Considered: · Audit Wales Report “Springing Forward Workforce Management” · Council response.
Issues Discussed: · Audit Wales indicated that this work had been undertaken in all authorities in Wales. · It was found that there was a positive situation in the Council in respect of workforce management with clear plans for the workforce as well as clear plans to address workforce challenges. There were also effective service plans in place. · The new ways of working strategy had been a major change of emphasis for the Council and there was evidence that arrangements were in place to support this process. · There were also arrangements in place for monitoring workforce activity. · The improvements identified included benchmarking information as well as more frequent scrutiny of workforce management issues, although there was evidence that this was happening already. · The recommendation on benchmarking around workforce activities was common to most authorities and was recognised by the Council that this needed to be strengthened. · In relation to scrutiny, it would be a matter for scrutiny chairs to consider the inclusion of workforce management within work programmes. · The Head of Workforce and OD had already discussed this with the Chair of the Economy, Residents and Communities Scrutiny Committee and the Directors of Education and Children and Social Services and Housing about incorporating this within their areas. He was also leading an all Wales group to develop benchmarking. · The recommendation from this review would be included in the regulatory tracker.
· Questions:
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Internal Audit Activity Report - Quarter 2 Report PDF 1 MB To receive and consider the SWAP Quarter 2 report. Minutes: Documents Considered: · SWAP Quarter 2 Report
Issues Discussed: · The next report to the Committee will reference the seven priority 1 recommendations. · There are currently eighteen outstanding actions (18%) of which five are long standing (priority 1 and 2 actions). · The Assistant Director had met the Council’s Senior Leadership Team to try and move progress on review recommendations and there was support to make progress. · Generally implementation of SWAP recommendations is high. · There were three reports in the quarter with a limited assurance such as the National fraud initiative 2020 which was a data matching exercise. This was impacted by Covid and business grants administration which had an impact on the counter fraud team which were mitigating factors. There was a backlog of cases at the end of the previous exercise but these would be picked up in the NFI 2022 exercise. SWAP was carrying out some follow up work and ensuring that the Council was prepared for the next exercise in January. · There were also two Adult Social care reports which would be reported to the next meeting (continuing health care and deprivation of liberty safeguards). · The work of SWAP is generally aligned to strategic risks. · The overall rolling opinion at Quarter 2 is reasonable assurance.
· Questions:
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To receive and consider the draft Terms of Reference and proposed membership of the Working Groups. Additional documents:
Minutes: Documents Considered: · Draft Terms of Reference for the following Working Groups: · Capital Working Group · Highways, Transport and Recycling Working Group · HoWPS Working Group · Internal Audit Working Group · Proposed membership of the Working Groups.
Issues Discussed: · With regard to HoWPS it has been agreed in consultation with the Chair of the Economy, Residents and Communities Scrutiny Committee that two separate working groups be established with the Governance and Audit Committee’s working group focussing on lessons learned in terms of setting up and operating any future commercial enterprises. · The proposed membership as set out in the attachment was as identified previously. · There was a need for an additional member representative on the Capital Working Group. · It was suggested that how working groups operated could be flexible depending on their forward work programmes. · It would be necessary for working groups to report back to the Committee.
· Questions:
Outcomes: · Schedule of initial working group meetings to be prepared. · Each working group to determine its own work programme at the first meeting. · Add details of key contacts to the Terms of Reference.
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To consider the draft forward work programme (attached) and to identify any additional items for future consideration. Minutes: Documents Considered: · Draft Work Programme
Issues Discussed: · Identity of the risks subject to a deep dive to be included in the work programme. · Deep dives 1 and 2 – officers to be contacted about dates as soon as possible. · The Assistant Director (SWAP) suggested that the Committee might wish to receive an assurance about the tracking of other bodies and regulators which report to the Council. · It was suggested that the regulatory tracker be added to the work programme on a quarterly basis.
Outcomes: · Identity of the risks subject to a deep dive to be included in the work programme. · Deep dives 1 and 2 – officers to be contacted about dates as soon as possible. · The regulatory tracker be added to the work programme on a quarterly basis.
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