6 RECOMMENDATIONS AND PROPOSALS FOR IMPROVEMENT OF EXTERNAL AUDIT REPORTS PDF 58 KB
To submit the report of the Head of Corporate Support.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Council's Business Support Manager set the context, and noted
that the role of the Committee was to satisfy itself that arrangements
and processes were underway to ensure that improvement
proposals of external reports were implemented,
and that the Committee should not duplicate an investigation
into matters that were within
the remit of other scrutiny committees.
He referred to Appendix
1 of the report which included a chronological list of the inspections undertaken by external auditors between 2012/13 and 2017/18 along with their improvement
proposals, and the progress made by the Council against these proposals since the Committee discussed the matter at its meeting on
30 November 2017. He explained
that it was the relevant Department's observations noted under the 'Progress against improvement proposals' heading, with the independent opinion of officers from the Council's Business Support Unit noted under the 'Conclusion' heading. He noted that it was a matter for the Committee to decide whether or not they agreed with the conclusion that the work of realising the recommendation had been 'completed' or continued to be 'on-going'.
During the discussion, the following main points were noted
by members:
·
The 'Annual
Performance Appraisal of
the Care and Social
Services Inspectorate for
Wales (CSSIW) 2013/14' report had been
submitted quite a long time ago. Who
completed health assessments for looked-after children and was a shortage of doctors a reason for the reduction in the performance percentage of registering with a GP within 10 days?
·
Progress regarding
improvement proposals in the report noted
above was a matter that needed to be addressed;
·
The Care Scrutiny
Committee should be asked to consider scrutinising matters highlighted by the 2013/14 and
2014/15 CSSIW reports, the 'Helping
People to Live Independently: Do Councils Do Enough?' report, along with the 'National Review of care and assistance to people with learning
disabilities (Joint-review carried out by CSSIW and the Health Care Inspectorate)', and work undertaken to respond to the improvement proposals;
·
The Communities
Scrutiny Committee should be asked to consider scrutinising matters highlighted in the 'Delivering with Less - the impact on environmental
health services and citizens' report,
and work undertaken to respond to the improvement proposals;
·
Confirmation should
be received in terms of which committee should consider the 'Asset management [Land and Buildings]'
report;
·
In terms of the 'Community Safety in Wales' report, if the matter was in this Committee's
terms of reference, the Committee should receive a report on the matter;
·
An explanation should be received of why three improvement
proposals under the 'People Strategy' report had not been completed.
A member enquired whether or not there was a time-scale to complete the work of responding to improvement proposals. The Council's Business Support Manager noted that a time-scale to complete the work of responding to recommendations would be considered ... view the full minutes text for item 6
11 RECOMMENDATIONS AND PROPOSALS FOR IMPROVEMENT OF EXTERNAL AUDIT REPORTS PDF 20 KB
To submit the report of the Head of Corporate Support.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Senior Revenue
and Risk Manager set the context, noting that the Committee was responsible for
considering external audit reports (national, and local to Gwynedd), the
recommendations included in them, and the implications of these to governance,
managing risk or management. The members were reminded
that the Committee's role was to satisfy itself that arrangements and processes
were in place in order to ensure that the improvement proposals were being
implemented. It was added that the report included
information in narrative form under the headings in line with the Chief
Executive’s request.
The Council's
Business Support Manager referred to Appendix 1 of the report
which included a chronological list of the inspections undertaken by
external auditors between 2012/13 and 2016/17 along with their improvement
proposals, and the progress made by the Council against these proposals. It was explained that the relevant Department's observations
was noted under the 'Progress against improvement proposals' heading, with the
independent opinion of officers from the Council's Business Support Unit noted
under the 'Conclusion' heading. It was explained that
the improvement proposals noted as "completed" were removed from the
list and it was intended to report on the progress to the Committee within six
months.
The Head of
Finance Department referred to improvement proposal 2 under the 'Financial
resilience of local authorities in Wales 2015-16' report - "Local
Authorities should develop corporate income generating and fee charging
policies" that had been noted as "in progress". He noted that
work associated with the improvement proposal would permanently be in progress
and that he, the Chief Executive and the Cabinet look at strategic headings.
The Council's
Business Support Manager noted that he accepted the observation that many
improvement proposals could be permanently in progress and that similar ones had been removed.
A member noted
that the improvement proposal had been "completed" because a policy
was in place and it should not be re-submitted before the Committee.
RESOLVED to accept the report, subject to noting that improvement proposal 2 under the 'Financial resilience of local authorities in Wales 2015-16' report has been "completed".