Agenda item

Report of the Corporate Director Resources (Section 151 Officer) Clare James, presented by the Head of Governance and Business Support.

The Corporate Director Resources submitted a report to the committee for them to approve the draft Annual Governance Statement (AGS) for 2022/23 for inclusion in the Annual Statement of Accounts following a review of the council’s governance arrangements.

The Head of Governance and Business Support introduced the report. She explained to the committee that the council was required, through the Accounts and Audit Regulations, to publish a statement annually of how the council demonstrated its good governance framework, particularly in relation to the CIPFA guidance on good governance.

She gave an explanation as to how the AGS was put together and explained it was a statement on behalf of the organisation, pulled together by key officers of the organisation through the AGS workshop which took place at the end of the financial year. Officers would go through the CIPFA good governance notes and check which areas of the council complied with these and where they did not. She praised the work of the organisation in its transparency and honesty of what the council did not do well. The statement, for the benefit of the new committee members, was in draft form and would stay so until September 2023 and members were encouraged to review previous audit reports and documents held on the Councillor Portal to gain the assurances required prior to agreeing the  final version in September.

She read out two statements, from the outgoing Chief Executive and the outgoing Chair of the committee to give members assurances on the draft AGS 2022/23.

She pointed members to pages 138-150 of the agenda pack which set out the core principles and evidence of demonstrating core values. Any identified gaps would either be included in the report or the action plan. She made reference to the hard work of the Audit Team in implementing a new risk management system (GRACE) and also gave details of her evaluation of the assurances given by the Audit and Risk Manager on the effectiveness of internal control. She also made comments on paragraphs nine, the “Value for Money Commentary” and ten, the “Significant Governance Issues Identified” section.

Members raised questions over the significant governance issues identified and the process by which members would receive and review this work.

The Head of Governance and Business Support explained to members that the draft AGS for 2020/21 and 2021/22 was still in draft form, as the Statement of Accounts had not yet been signed off. Another issue she wanted to draw members’ attention to within her report was the procurement breach experienced in 2022 which had been raised at committee previously. Members raised questions over this procurement breach and the controls in place to ensure this was not repeated.

Overall, she had no other significant governance issues needing referring to in her report. She told members that a supplementary action plan would be available in due course.

She said to members she would present the AGS to the Chief Executive and the Leader of the Council in July 2023; following this, the action plan would be published.

Following discussion, it was proposed by Councillor Rendell and seconded by Councillor Sorensen that the committee agree the recommendations at para 3.1 and 3.2 of the report. The committee resolved to formally approve the draft AGS, and resolved to grant delegated authority to the Section 151 Officer to make minor amendments and any changes requested by the external auditors.