Agenda and minutes

Sue Sunderland and Richard Walton from KPMG External Auditors.

Of the meeting held on 26 June 2015 (for confirmation)

Subject to the following amendments to the recommendations of minute 7, Agenda item 7, ‘Progress Against Recommendations of the ACTICA Review of Nottingham City Council IT Services’, the minutes of the meeting held on 26 June 2015 were confirmed and signed by the Chair:

(a)  deletion of recommendation 2;

(b)  insertion of the following new recommendations:

(i)  ‘that with regard to the 28 recommendations within the ACTICA report, the IT Service Support Manager provide Councillors Edwards, Peach and Young with the action plan identifying the individual time scale targets to implement or address each recommendation;’

(ii)  ‘for the IT Service Support Manager to provide a briefing note to all Councillors, outlining the IT equipment disposal policy and providing contact details for relevant IT colleagues to assist with distributing old equipment to community and voluntary groups.’

None.

Report of the Chair of the Audit Committee

Councillor Sarah Piper, Chair of the Committee, presented the report which details the work undertaken by the Audit Committee during the 2014/15 municipal year.

RESOLVED

(1)  to note the work undertaken by the Audit Committee during 2014/15;

(2)  to approve the Audit Committee Annual Report 2014/15.

Report of the Chief Finance Officer

Barry Dryden, Senior Finance Manager, presented the report which, in complying with Audit Regulations 2011, produce an un-audited Annual Statement of Accounts which are made available for public inspection prior to consideration for approval at the Audit Committee’s meeting in September 2015. 

The following responses were provided by the Senior Finance Officer, who was accompanied by Jeff Abbott, Head of Corporate Finance:

(a)  monitoring of the success and failure of other Local Authorities, with regard to their financial management, is ongoing to prevent any repeats of processes and strategies which have been proven flawed, but also to take advantage of the systems and strategies which are proven to be beneficial;

(b)  the movement in resources and payroll is partly as a result some senior staff not receiving pension contributions as following a change in legislation, their pension has been effectively frozen so there is no benefit for them to make further contributions, and if the employee is not contributing, the  Council will not contribute;

(c)  with regard to the process for assessing the impact on the valuation of the City Council’s assets, such as the government’s announcement regarding ‘right to buy’, specific formula are applied which take into account the rental value of properties, making allowances for market value variations;

(d)  with regard to Section 8, paragraph 8.5.2 and the joint venture partnership with ‘Blueprint Limited, it is noted that the City Council has some long term assets held for sale and this will have an impact on the balance sheet.

RESOLVED

(1)  to note that the Statement of Accounts was submitted to the Audit Commission for audit review on 29 June 2015;

(2)  to note that the contents of the Statement of Accounts will be placed on deposit for public inspection for 20 working days from 6 July 2015;

(3)  to note that there have been no significant changes to the accounting policies presented to Audit Committee on 27 February 2015;

(4)  for the Statement of Accounts to be produced on a going concern basis;

(5)  to note that the Audit Committee will be required to review the final audited Statement when it is presented on 18 September 2015;

(6)  to accept the offer of the Senior Finance Manager to facilitate a training session on the Statement of Accounts, prior to the next Audit Committee Meeting.

To consider excluding the public from the meeting during consideration of the remaining item(s) in accordance with section 100a(3) of the Local Government Act 1972 on the basis that, having regard to all the circumstances, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

RESOLVED to exclude the public from the meeting during consideration of the remaining agenda item in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 on the basis that, having regard to all the circumstances, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information, as defined in Paragraph 3of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act.

To confirm the exempt minute of the meeting held on 26 June 2015

The exempt minute of the meeting held on 26 June 2015, was confirmed and signed by the Chair.