Issue - meetings

To inform the Corporate Committee of the requirements of the statutory Annual Governance Statement (AGS) and provide a draft statement relating to 2010/11 for review and approval.

The committee considered  the draft Annual Governance statement which it was responsible for approving  as part of its terms of reference. The council was required to produce an Annual Governance statement for publication with the Council’s annual  accounts. This document comments on the Council’s governance framework as a whole .   It was noted that Corporate Governance brings together an underlying set of legislative requirements , governance principles and management processes. The comments of the committee were required   on  the draft  and would be incorporated into the final report to the committee in September along with the accounts.

The Audit committee  previous discussion on the use of consultants and the  compliance with contract standing orders was referred to and clarification sought on why this was not further expanded on in the statement. In response it was noted that there was reference to  the 50 system reviews undertaken by the council and of which  had received limited assurance . A further  follow up report on the use of consultants with information on a further audit in this area would be the subject of a report to this committee in July .  The committee noted that the determination of a  significant issue to be highlighted in the AGS  would be  based on the  materiality of spend  and impact on the council however given the weighting that Grant Thornton had provided to the issues around the process to recruiting and retaining consultants it was accepted that this was also  a matter of judgement  on what issues could be viewed as significant.

 It was recommended that the  final draft highlight  the changes, deletions and  additions to the statement since the previous year.  It was agreed that the comments pertaining to limited assurance reports in section 4.9 be expanded and further information be included on the issues arising  from the Council’s use of consultants.

RESOLVED

1. That subject to  the above additions the draft Annual Governance Statement be approved.

2. That the timescale and processes for approval of the draft Annual Governance Statement be noted