Issue - meetings

Report of Grant Thornton.

Grant Thornton presented the report on Grant Claims and Returns Planning, which outlined the grants protocol for 2008-9 and the estimated cost of the certification of grants claims and returns. As the number of grants exceeding the threshold for certification had reduced, it was anticipated that the fee would be lower than for the previous year, by approximately £17k.

The Committee expressed concern that 88% of claims were submitted on time, given the substantial amounts of funds involved, and that a third of claims were qualified and/or amended. The Committee requested from officers that 100% of claims should be targetted to be submitted on time, and that there should be far fewer claims requiring amendment. Grant Thornton reported that progress for the current year to date did seem more positive. In response to a question from the Committee regarding whether any losses were incurred as a result of late submission or qualification of claims, it was confirmed that no grant income had been lost as a result of these issues. Members welcomed the fact that no grant income had been lost, but emphasised that there was potential for loss when claims were not submitted on time or required amendment, which was why it was important to improve performance. The Chief Financial Officer confirmed that officers were focussed on improving performance and that, whenever a claim was qualified, this was re-examined to identify why this occurred and to correct the process for the future.

In response to a question from the Committee on whether the Council was making all the claims it was entitled to, the Chief Financial Officer reported that where claims were made, these were always for the full amount possible and that an external funding forum was in place to discuss and work together across Council departments to apply for relevant grants. It was also confirmed that all Government announcements were actively monitored by the Council for information on new grants available, in addition to the routine grants which were applied for each year. The Council had requested a comprehensive list of grants available from the Government, but such a list was not available.

Graham Oliver, Corporate Finance, clarified for the Committee that not all grants required certification, only those where this was a statutory requirement.

In response to a question from the Chair regarding the inclusion of specific work on grant claims and returns testing in the Internal Audit Plan, it was confirmed that this was included for the 2009/10 Internal Audit Plan, and that the external auditors and Internal Audit were liaising to discuss this issue further.

RESOLVED

That the content of the report be noted.