An apology for absence was received from Councillor Daley.

The following substitution was noted:-

Councillor Mrs Wilson for Councillor Daley.

There were no Visiting Members.

There were no disclosures by Members or Officers.

There were no disclosures of lobbying.

RESOLVED: That the Items on the Agenda be taken in public as proposed.

RESOLVED: That the Minutes of the meeting held on 18 January 2010 be approved as a correct record and signed, subject to the insertion of the word “was” after the word “She” on the 5^th line of the 4^th paragraph on page 3, under Minute No. 66.

The Committee considered the report of the Chief Officer Management Team regarding proposals for risk management.

Philip Colvey from Zurich gave the Committee an overview of how the process will work and a handout was circulated to all Members.  Members then asked Philip Colvey a number of questions relating to different parts of the process and the Committee were assured that all Members would have an opportunity to input into the process and that once the process had been completed, the Audit Committee would have the opportunity to pass their comments to Cabinet before a decision is made.

A member raised concern regarding the budget process for 2010/11, whereby it was felt that proper risk analysis had not been undertaken, especially with regard to systemic risk for the large planned projects.  The Director of Resources and Partnerships assured the Committee that all the large projects are planned using a project management methodology which includes risk management and assessment and how to mitigate the risks and Management Team monitors those risks.  She explained that this analysis work had been done for the 2010/11 budget and she was happy to go through this with the Member.  She also mentioned that what would be done better in the future is that this risk analysis information regarding future budgets would be made available to the Audit Committee at an earlier stage in the budget process to enable the Committee to make recommendations to Cabinet.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

The Committee considered the report of the Director of Resources and Partnerships concerning a revision to the role and Terms of Reference of the Audit Committee as well as endorsing the commissioning of a peer review of the Audit Committee by IdEA.

The Director of Change and Partnerships informed the Committee that, following publication of the report, of the 3 other Councils within the Mid-Kent Partnership, 2 had indicated they would be keen to be involved with the peer review and 1 had declined.

The Committee asked a number of questions of the Director of Change and Partnerships regarding the appointment of the Independent Member and the Committee were informed that a further report on this appointment would be brought to a future meeting.

RESOLVED:

1.  That the revision of the composition and terms of reference of the Audit Committee, as set out in paragraphs 1.3.3 and 1.3.6 of the report of the Director of Resources and Partnerships be agreed and that the amendment to the Constitution be evaluated by Standards Committee prior to being submitted to Council for consideration.

2.  That the proposal for a peer review of the Audit Committee to ensure that the Committee’s revised role and terms of reference take account of national best practice be endorsed.

6.30 p.m. to 7.20 p.m.