Issue - meetings

To consider and agree the minutes of the meeting held on 17^th March 2021.

The Committee requested an update around the follow-up audit of the purchase of Alexandra House. In response, officers set out that at its last meeting, the Committee received a report from Mazars into the initial decision not to purchase Alex House when the opportunity first arose. Subsequent to this, Internal Audit received a report from the external auditors around the later decision to purchase, which set out a number of areas of assurance that the Head of Audit accepted. The Head of Audit advised that he was happy to consider any further concerns raised by the Committee and whether a further piece of audit work was required. The Chair suggested that this could be picked up outside of the meeting.

A Member of the Committee sought clarification around what issues the Chair was hoping to pursue outside of the meeting. The Chair set out that there were still some outstanding issues around the initial decision not to purchase and the decision making processes involved therein. The Chair suggested that he would like to see some further assurances that similar mistakes would not be made in the future. The Chair proposed that he would have some further discussions with officers outside of the meeting and that the issue would come back to the Committee at a subsequent meeting.

A Committee Member suggested that these concerns should be outlined in the meeting in a public forum. It was commented that the Committee had already received a report at a previous meeting, and it was suggested that the justification for a further report was unclear. The Member cautioned against other members of the Committee being seen to pursue a political agenda. The Chair reiterated his concerns around good governance and value for money and advised that the discussions he had initially suggested were merely around the scope of further inquiry. The Chair accepted the point raised about the need for any future report to come back to a future meeting and be discussed in public.

The Committee Member in question reiterated the need for decisions to be taken in the meeting and suggested that, given this was a new Committee, perhaps the initial report should be brought back to the Committee in the first instance, with questions put to officers.

Cllr Amin requested that her strong opposition to the process be recorded in the minutes along with her concerns that this seemed to be part of a political agenda.

The Chair requested that an item around a possible follow-up audit on the decision to purchase Alex House would be added to the agenda for the next Committee. (Action: Clerk).

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the meeting held on 17^th March 2021 were agreed as a correct record.