Venue: Siambr Hywel Dda, Council Offices, Caernarfon, Gwynedd, LL55 1SH
Contact: Eirian Roberts 01286 679018
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APOLOGIES To receive apologies for absence. Minutes: Apologies were received from Councillors R.
Medwyn Hughes, Peredur Jenkins and W Gareth Roberts |
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DECLARATION OF PERSONAL INTEREST To receive any declaration of personal interest. Minutes: No declarations of personal interest were received from any members present. |
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URGENT ITEMS To note any items which are urgent business in the opinion of the Chairman so they may be considered. Minutes: None to note |
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The Chairman shall propose that the minutes of the meeting of this committee, held on 29th July and 13th September, 2019, be signed as true records (attached). Additional documents: Minutes: The Chair signed
the minutes of the previous meetings of this Committee, held on 29 July and 13
September 2019, as a true record. |
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INTERNAL AUDIT OUTPUT 1/4/2019 - 4/10/2019 PDF 181 KB To submit the
report of the Audit Manager (attached). Minutes: The Audit Manager
presented a report, outlining the Internal Audit’s work for the period up to 4
October 2019. Attention
was drawn to the relevant assurance level of the plan's audits, and it was noted
that the outcomes were positive, and that they all fell into the two highest
categories, namely satisfactory (controls are in place to achieve their
objectives but there are aspects of the arrangements that need tightening to
further mitigate the risks) and high (certainty of propriety can be stated as
internal controls can be relied upon to achieve objectives). No observations were made about the individual audits. RESOLVED to accept the report and support the
actions that have already been agreed with the relevant services. |
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INTERNAL AUDIT PLAN 2019/20 PDF 118 KB To submit the
report of the Audit Manager (attached). Minutes: The report of the Audit Manager was submitted
for information, which provided the Committee with an update on the current
situation in terms of completing the 2019/20 Internal Audit Plan. It was noted
that a total of 60 audits had been included in the
plan, with the service aiming to have 95% of the audits in the plan either
closed or with the final report released by 31 March 2020. As at 4 October, it was noted that Internal
Audit's actual achievement was 16.67% (target of 20% by the end of quarter 2),
with 10 individual reports having been released in a final version. It was noted that there had been minor
amendments to the plan, with four audits added to the plan. In order to
implement this, and in consideration of the support provided by a Senior
Auditor to assist Snowdonia National Park Authority to prepare its 2018/19 year
end accounts (a total of 52 days), it had been decided to prioritise the audits
in the plan based on risk. It had been concluded that
seven audits would be cancelled. In response to a request to clarify the '5 Ways of Working', the Audit
Manager noted that the phrase represented statutory working arrangements, where
Welsh Government place a statutory requirement to give appropriate
consideration to certain principles. In response to a question regarding the audit work undertaken to assist
Snowdonia National Park Authority, it was reported that there was an agreement
with the Park to provide 30 days of the Internal Audit section's work, and that
52 days of additional support to prepare the Park Authority's 2018/19 Accounts
had been paid separately. In response to a question regarding the decision to cancel seven of the
audits, it was noted that the entire procedure and the
annual plan had been considered in conjunction with the Assistant Head –
Revenue and Risk. It was added that the seven audits
would not 'drop out' of the medium-term plan, as they would be a priority
within the 2020/21 Internal Audit plan. It was suggested, in future update reports on the Internal Audit Plan,
that it would be beneficial to include a sentence noting the rationale for any
audit 'slippages', in order to clarify the situation. RESOLVED to accept the report. |
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EXTERNAL ASSESSMENT OF INTERNAL AUDIT PDF 49 KB To submit the
report of the Audit Manager (attached). Additional documents: Minutes: The Audit Manager presented
a report which outlined the outcomes of the external
assessment completed by Carmarthenshire's Chief Executive. Members were reminded that the Public Sector Internal Audit
Standards required an external assessment to be carried out of all the Internal
Audit services at least every five years by an independent, qualified reviewer
from outside the organisation. It was reported that there were 334 best practice requirements within
the Standards, and that Gwynedd Council conformed in general to 307 of the
requirements, and conformed partially to 13 of the other requirements. Reference was made
to the ratings that designated the 'conformity level', and highlighted that
'generally conforms' meant that the internal activity had a charter, The Audit Manager
added that she welcomed the result of the self-assessment. She also noted that
no formal feedback on the Chief Auditor's performance would be submitted, but
Gwynedd Council's processes in which quarterly performance monitoring meetings
were held gave the Cabinet Member an opportunity to report and clarify the
delivery measures and to discuss the unit's performance and work. The Head of
Finance Department thanked the Audit Manager and her staff for their
commendable work, and it was agreed that the result
was one to be proud of. RESOLVED to accept the report and to congratulate
the Internal Audit Service for the professional quality of its work. |
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REVENUE BUDGET 2019/20 - END OF AUGUST REVIEW PDF 193 KB To submit the report
of the Head of Finance (attached). Additional documents:
Minutes: The
report was presented by Councillor Ioan Thomas (Cabinet Member for Finance) for information,
for members to consider the risks that arose from the expenditure projections
against the budget. It was highlighted that the report
had been submitted to the Cabinet on 15 October. Attention was
drawn to the summary of each department's situation, and the resulting
mixed picture. Reference was made
to the Adults Service that had an overspend of £1.6m,
partially stemming from the failure to deliver the savings plans. It was noted that the
Chief Executive had since called a meeting with relevant officers to gain a
better understanding, and a clear programme of response. It was noted that the
Children's Department had also shown an overspend of
£2.9m, and a Task Group had been arranged in order to examine the Department's
overspend. It was highlighted that there had been a 15% increase in looked
after children during 2018/19 and that the situation was not unique to Gwynedd.
The Cabinet Member for Finance further noted that the
Children's Department's Task Group would be reporting on improvements in
February 2020. It was also noted that there had been an
overspend of £733k in the Highways Department, due to problems relating
to waste collection and disposal. It was
reported that the Environment Department had been given permission to earmark
£220k of underspend for unavoidable costs (due to reasons beyond the Council's
control) following a recent judicial review relating to the Llanbedr access
Road. Attention was
drawn to the status of the Corporate budget, where an
underspend of £2,867k was being transferred to funds, partially to
mitigate the risk of Council departments overspending in 2019/20. In response to a
question about whether the Chief Executive had met relevant officers in the Adults
Department, it was noted that initial meetings had
been held, and that the officers had accepted the task of examining the
information. An observation was made that the Youth Department highlighted mixed
messages, given that the service had been remodelled in response to the savings
programme, but was now showing a significant underspend. In response, it was clarified that changes to posts and activities were
responsible for this. It was added that grants had
also been received, which meant that there was no underspend against the core
budget. In response to a
question about the latest situation regarding the Council Tax Premium, it was
reported that it was expected that £2.7m would be collected in the current year
in line with the budget estimate, and that officers and Members were
pressurising Welsh Government for an update regarding properties that
transferred to become businesses. An observation was made that a Task Group of the Communities Scrutiny Committee had been established to consider options for managing parking in light of financial challenges, but it appeared from the report on the 2019/20 budget that the Environment Department had already exceeded their target income. In response, the Cabinet Member noted that the Environment Department had a historical savings scheme to deliver by ... view the full minutes text for item 8. |
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CAPITAL PROGRAMME 2019/20 - END OF AUGUST REVIEW PDF 192 KB To submit the
report of the Head of Finance
(attached). Additional documents: Minutes: The
report was presented by Councillor Ioan Thomas (Cabinet Member for Finance) for information,
for members to consider the risks that arose from the capital programme and to
scrutinise the Cabinet's decisions. Reference was made
to the main conclusions that were listed in the report, and the details of the
additional grants that the Council had succeeded in attracting since the
original budget was established. Attention was drawn
to the changes to the funding sources that meant an increase of £17.85m in the
three-year capital programme since the original budget had been set. It was noted that an additional £5,353k of borrowing in the
funding table derived from the Flood Prevention Schemes. In relation to the
Local Government Borrowing Initiative, it was explained
that Welsh Government funded 75% of the scheme's cost, by recompensing the
Council's borrowing costs over a 25-year period through the annual Revenue
Support Grant. It was confirmed that the 25% to be
funded by the Council had already been earmarked as part of the Assets Plan. In the context of
the Westminster Government's recent decision to increase the PWLB interest
rates by 1%, which meant higher borrowing costs for local authorities, it was explained that it was Welsh Government that would fund
the interest through the Initiative Plan. As a result, a question was asked
whether the funding that we received from the Government reflected the higher
interest rate that we had to pay in order to borrow?
It was confirmed that the conditions of the
arrangement enabled the Council to claim a larger contribution, as the movement
in the rate exceeded 0.5%, and therefore Welsh Government would fund the
increase. In
response to the observation about the increase in the interest rate, it was noted that
rates had fallen in the past, and that this increase was a return to a low
level, rather than 'something unusual'. The Head of Finance noted that the
recent increase had been unexpected and although rates had fallen gradually
since 2008, an increase of 1% was now a fairly significant
jump. RESOLVED to accept
the report and note the situation and relevant risks in the context of the
Council's capital programme. |