Decision:
1.1 To
approve and note the final financial position of the Council’s departments for
2016/17.
1.2 To approve the amounts to be carried forward (the
“Revised Over/ (Under) Spend” column of the summary in Appendix 1), namely:
DEPARTMENT |
£’000 |
Adults, Health and Well-being |
(100) |
Children and Families |
0 |
Education |
(48) |
Economy and Community |
(19) |
Highways and Municipal |
0 |
Environment (formerly Regulatory) |
(38) |
Gwynedd Consultancy |
(96) |
Corporate Management Team & Legal |
(45) |
Finance |
(67) |
Corporate Support |
(56) |
1.3
To approve the following recommendations and financial transfers (as
outlined in Appendix 2) -
·
Use (£46k), that is the underspend in excess of £100k Adults, Health and
Well-being to contribute towards the shortfall in another department.
·
Clear the overspend in the Children and Families Department so that they
can move forward to face the 2017/18 challenge, and to finance this by
re-directing the Adults, Health and Well-being Department underspend (£46k) and
Corporate underspend (£151k).
·
Clear the overspend in the Highways and Municipal Department so that
they can move forward to face the 2017/18 challenge, and to finance this by
re-directing Corporate underspend (£88k).
·
Use the £939k underspend on Corporate Budgets for 2016/17 as follows:
- £151k to clear the overspend of
the Children and Families Department
- £88k to clear the overspend of
the Highways and Municipal Department
- £700k to be earmarked in a
reserve to contribute towards the Financial Strategy for the future.
1.4
To approve the virements from the specific reserves
and release the provisions as outlined in Appendix 3 following a comprehensive
review of reserves and provisions.
1.5 To
convey to the Departments that the Cabinet will only clear overspend in very
exceptional circumstances in the future, and that departments will be expected
to carry forward any future overspend (in accordance with the procedure for
carrying underspend forward).
Minutes:
RESOLVED
1.1 To approve and note
the final financial position of the Council’s departments for 2016/17.
1.2 To approve the amounts to be carried forward (the “Revised Over/ (Under) Spend” column
of the summary in Appendix 1), namely -
DEPARTMENT |
£’000 |
Adults, Health and Well-being |
(100) |
Children and Families |
0 |
Education |
(48) |
Economy and Community |
(19) |
Highways and Municipal |
0 |
Environment (formerly Regulatory) |
(38) |
Gwynedd Consultancy |
(96) |
Corporate Management Team & Legal |
(45) |
Finance |
(67) |
Corporate Support |
(56) |
1.3
To approve the following
recommendations and virements (as outlined
in Appendix 2) -
·
Use (£46k), that is the underspend
in excess of £100k Adults, Health and Well-being to contribute towards the shortfall in another
department.
·
Clear the overspend in
the Children and Families Department so that they
can move forward to face the 2017/18 challenge, and to finance this by re-directing
the Adults, Health and Well-being Department underspend (£46k) and Corporate underspend
(£151k).
·
Clear the overspend in
the Highways and Municipal Department so that
they can move forward to face the 2017/18 challenge, and to finance this by
re-directing Corporate underspend (£88k).
·
Use the £939k underspend on Corporate Budgets
for 2016/17 as follows:
- £151k to clear
the overspend of the Children
and Families Department
- £88k to clear
the overspend of the Highways
and Municipal Department
- £700k to be earmarked
in a reserve to contribute towards the Financial Strategy for the future.
1.4 To approve
the virements from the specific reserves and release the provisions as outlined
in Appendix 3 following a comprehensive review of reserves and provisions.
1.5 To convey to
the departments that the
Cabinet will only clear overspend in very exceptional
circumstances in the future, and that
departments will be expected to carry forward any future
overspend (in accordance with the procedure for carrying
underspend forward).
DISCUSSION
The report was submitted to consider and note the final financial position
of Council departments. It was noted
that the report was very encouraging and the staff members were thanked for
creating the report. Appendix 1 was a
summary of each department, which showed that the majority of departments were
underspending. It was noted that if a
department underspent more than £100k that the money would to transferred to
other departments and projects.
It was noted that there was an underspend of £939k under the corporate
budget headings, with £239k of it going towards mitigating the overspend in two
departments. It was expressed that £700k was being earmarked to fund a
financial strategy for the future, and this meant that there was £1.76m in a
fund for that specific purpose. As the Council faced a period of uncertainty
regarding the Government grant funding level by 2018/19 and beyond, this fund
could give the Council some time to plan in order to respond appropriately.
It was noted that the report had been submitted to the Audit Committee, and
that it supported the recommendations.
It was reported that the Audit Committee had enquired about amending the
2017/18 budgets of the departments in order to reflect the financial
performance of 2016/17. They enquired
and received explanations regarding the overspend in the Children's Department
and the underspend in the Adults Department, and it was established that this
had not occurred due to a failure to provide services. The commercial operation of the Consultancy
Department was noted.
Observations
arising from the discussion:
·
As the departments were underspending, a discussion
was held on whether this would give the Government a reason to reduce the
future grant. It was noted that it was
not a reason to reduce the grant as this was the subject of a formula that had
nothing to do with financial performance.
A discussion was held on the argument in relation to clearing the overspend of departments and the risks of creating a culture where overspending
did not lead to any side-effects. A decision was made to make an addition
to point 1.5 of the recommendation
to convey to departments that the Cabinet would only clear overspend
in the future in exceptional circumstances and that departments would be expected to carry forward any
overspend in the future.
Supporting documents: