Agenda item

Report of the Governance, Risk and Compliance Officer

The Governance, Risk and Compliance Officer introduced the Annual Governance Statement (AGS).  He explained that the Council had a statutory duty to prepare the AGS as part of the annual statement of accounts.  The committee needed to be satisfied that the AGS fairly reflected the arrangements within the council and that the action plan would address any significant governance issues identified by the review. 

This was a lengthy report and covered the previous twelve months of business at the council, including issues and management of risks.  The action plan at the back of the report was populated by internal and external audit and progress was monitored throughout the year. 

The Governance, Risk and Compliance Officer gave the following answers to questions from members of the committee;

·    The audit committee was responsible for reviewing and approving some of the council’s policies.  The Counter Corruption and Fraud policy was currently being reviewed by officers in order that it could be aligned with the procurement policy.  Once complete this would reported for approval by the committee. 

·    Unlike the Joint Waste Committee, there was no reference to the Joint Economic Committee.  The Governance, Risk and Compliance Officer would speak to the relevant officer regarding what reference was required as he had not been involved in any discussions up to this point.

·    The typos that were highlighted would be amended. 

·    The final report and recommendations into the Wilson (ArtGallery and Museum) had not yet been received and as such this had not been included.  Once it had been received and the issues were, the level of associated risk would be assessed and items added as necessary.  Until then the specific issues were not evident.   

·    The council had a robust business continuity plan but as a result of the ICT shared service with the Forest of Dean and the alignment of ICT infrastructure both plans were being challenged and redefined.  The council had committed to a 5 year capital investment of 1.3million in to ICT infrastructure.  Members were assured that the existing business continuity plan was still in place should an issue arise with the  infrastructure and the March 2015 deadline was for the alignment of this plan into a joint plan with the Forest of Dean.

·    The action relating to ‘safeguarding children and vulnerable adults’ was not complete as a lot of training had been delivered by GCC and the training records were still being sourced and pulled together.  The council had purchased a new central system which would automatically identify relevant training, send out policies (requiring the officer to register receipt and carry out a short test to measure understanding). 

·    UBICO use the council safeguarding policy and their staff were welcome to attend council training.  CBH had their own policies and training, given that by their very nature they were more likely to come into contact with children and vulnerable adults.  There was a legal requirement for all organisations to have these policies and as part of the AGS process they were required to give assurances to the council regarding compliance with such policies.  Audit would report any non-compliance to the council. 

·    The interim Head of Audit Services confirmed that the significant issue relating to the investigation into weaknesses in the control framework in ICT was being managed by the ICTSS and could be closed. It was felt that March 2015 was somewhat of a default date.  Whilst it was likely that a mid-year update would likely report that some actions had been concluded, officers were mindful of resource issues. 

·    The car parking item was ongoing as this was now subject to an enhanced piece of work to that originally undertaken.  Originally the review was focussed on an issue at Regents Arcade car park which had  now been expanded to consider the wider enforcement issue.  Officers were currently working towards having a report ready for Cabinet in July. 

Upon a vote it was unanimously

RESOLVED that;

1. the Annual Governance Statement be approved and included within the statement of accounts

2. the Leader and Chief Executive be advised to sign the Annual Governance Statement.