Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Dawes, Khadka and Titchener (Parish Representative).

Councillor Gooch was present as Substitute Member for Councillor Dawes.

There were no urgent items.

There were no Visiting Members.

There were no disclosures by Members or Officers.

There were no disclosures of lobbying.

RESOLVED: That all items on the agenda be taken in public as proposed.

RESOLVED: That the Minutes of the meeting held on 29 July 2024 be approved as a correct record and signed.

There were no questions from Local Residents.

There were no questions from Members.

In response to queries, the Head of Mid Kent Audit advised that procurement was reviewed by Internal Audit and that any issues identified were presented to the Committee. There had been legislative changes to procurement that would be implemented in February 2025 and there would be training made available for Members and officers.

RESOLVED: That the Committee Work Programme be noted.

Note: Councillor Couch arrived at 6.36pm and had no disclosures or lobbying to declare.

The Monitoring Officer introduced the report and provided an update on complaints for the period 1 March 2024 to 31 August 2024. It was outlined that there had been five complaints, all in March, which related to two Borough Councillors and one Parish Councillor. None of the complaints had been upheld as they failed the legal jurisdiction test.

In response to queries concerning complaints related to social media, the Monitoring Officer directed Members to seek training available on the Local Government Association website and to encourage other Members to do the same. It was agreed that a link to the relevant page would be circulated.

RESOLVED: That the contents of the report be noted.

The Head of Mid Kent Audit introduced the report and highlighted that:

·  The report detailed how the Committee had effectively discharged its duties to monitor audit activity (internal and external), review and comment on the effectiveness of the Council’s regulatory framework, reviewed and approved the Council’s annual statements of accounts and scrutinised associated strategy and policy;

·  There was a new assessment of the Committee against the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) framework. The results were generally positive with one area of non-compliance as the Committee was combined with the Standards function and not independently an Audit Committee. It was accepted that standalone Committees in smaller authorities were not always possible and therefore no further recommendation was made; and

·  There were a few areas for development and improvement including to potentially review the terms of reference and to do an assessment of skills and knowledge to see what training would help the Committee.

The Committee were supportive of assessment and development of skills through training, with it noted that the Parish Representatives should be included on the invites.

RESOLVED: That

1. The Audit, Governance and Standards Committee Annual Report for 2023/24 be agreed;
   
   
2. The report be taken to a meeting of the Full Council to demonstrate how the Committee has discharged its duties.

Sophia Brown, Key Audit Partner from Grant Thornton, the External Auditor, presented the report and advised that:

·  Audit of financial statements would begin from 1 October 2024, as planned, with the results expected to be presented at the January 2025 Committee meeting along with Auditor’s Annual Report. The value for money work would not be ready by 30 September 2024 and would be presented with the Auditor’s report as well; and

·  In accordance with the new government backstop arrangements, an opinion needed to be completed and issued by 28 February 2025, which was expected to be met.

In response to queries, the Key Audit Partner advised that they would provide more information on progress and milestones in the next report. She also stated that they would work together with the Finance team to find solutions to keep to future backstop dates.

RESOLVED: That the position be noted.

The Director of Finance, Resources and Business Improvement introduced the report and highlighted that:

• There was a projected overspend of £350,000 for the current year on the revenue account, some of which arises from factors that are out of Council control, for example, from demand-led services like temporary accommodation;
  
  
• There were new risks relating to Kent County Council (KCC). An historically paid incentive for sending recycling and waste to their disposal facility has been removed which would impact the Council directly and there were anticipated to be knock-on effects from their removing provision for supported accommodation and taking back some parking services;
  
  
• There was uncertainty around key information yet to be provided from the new government including the Council Tax referendum limit and what amount of collected business rates will be able to be retained; and
  
  
• There were risks associated with funding the growing Capital Programme due to inflation and construction prices, though the Council were managing risk of contractor failure through monitoring.

In response to queries, the Director of Finance, Resources and Business Improvement advised the Committee that a trending shortfall in planning, particularly major, applications meant that projections and resources would need to be reassessed. Changes to the local plan would also need to be considered as this affected the levels of submission of applications.

RESOLVED: That the risk assessment of the Budget Strategy provided at Appendix A to the report be noted.

The Director of Finance, Resources and Business Improvement introduced his report setting out a process for identifying and co-opting an Independent Member to the Committee. Following the first, unsuccessful attempt to appoint to this position, it would be advertised widely and selected by a panel consisting of the Committee Chairman and Vice-Chairman, the Director of Finance, Resources and Business Improvement and Head of Mid Kent Audit. It was highlighted that the renumeration would be £1600 rather than the £900 stated in the report, which was determined as the current market rate.

During discussion of this item, several Members raised queries about the process. The Director of Finance, Resources and Business Improvement clarified that this was not an employment contract and not subject to arrangements such as probation, but Human Resources would be part of the selection process and the appointment. The Monitoring Officer added that, as a co-opted Member, the candidate would follow the same code of conduct in the Constitution as the Committee.

RESOLVED: That the process set out in the report for co-opting an Independent Member to the Committee be agreed.

6.30 p.m. to 8.27 p.m.