Councillors Cully (P), Davis (P), Gill, Hayward (P), Kimber and Smith.

 

 

Independent Members:  Mr M J Heritage-Owen (P)

                                       Mr R V Perry (P)

 

 

It was reported that, in accordance with Standing Orders, notice had been received that Councillors Carr and Clinton would replace Councillors Gill and Kimber respectively for this meeting of the Committee.

 

 

Mr Heritage-Owen was welcomed to his first meeting of the Committee.

 

 

 

 

Apologies for inability to attend the meeting were received from Councillors Gill, Kimber and Smith.

 

 

 

 

RESOLVED: That Mr Heritage-Owen be appointed as Chairman of the Committee for the Municipal Year 2005/6.

 

 

 

 

RESOLVED: That Mr Perry be appointed as Vice Chairman of the Committee for the Municipal Year 2005/6.

 

 

 

 

There were no declarations of interest.

 

 

 

 

RESOLVED: That the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 22 September 2003 be approved and signed by the Chairman as a true and correct record.

 

 

 

 

There were no deputations.

 

 

 

 

There were no public questions.

 

 

 

 

Consideration was given to the joint report by the Borough Solicitor & Monitoring Officer and Head of Internal, which advised the Committee of progress in this area of work, in particular the Ethical Audit to be undertaken and a completed review of Contract Standing Orders and Financial Regulations.

 

 

The Borough Solicitor reported that, as part of the Comprehensive Performance Assessment, the Councillor’s Auditor carried out an assessment of the way the Council complied with the Statutory Code of Audit Practice and had found no problem areas.  Work had progressed on Corporate Governance issues and the Committee were informed that the Policy Overview and Scrutiny Audit and Risk Sub Committee had a role in both governance and audit matters.

 

The Borough Solicitor informed the Committee that in January 2005 the Council approved a revised Anti Fraud and Corruption Strategy and that the Ethical Audit was to be undertaken during July with the results being reported to a future meeting of this Committee.

 

Internal Audit Section had already completed a review of Contract Standing Orders and Financial Regulations and that work was developing to produce a Procurement Strategy, which would be considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee before being submitted to the Policy and Organisation Board for approval by full Council.

 

RESOLVED:  That the joint report of the Borough Solicitor and the Head of Internal Audit be noted and that the results of the Ethical Audit be reported to a future meeting.

 

 

 

 

Consideration was given to the Borough Solicitor & Monitoring Officer’s report advising the Committee on progress made on the Council’s Customer Complaints Procedure and to provide an update on complaints against the Council to the Local Government Ombudsman.

 

 

Since the last report to the Committee in September 2003, a number of improvements to the procedure had been introduced, namely:

 

 

The Borough Solicitor reported that it was encouraging to note that, of the decisions made by the Ombudsman in the last three years, no cases of maladministration had been found. It was pointed out that as at 1 July 2005 there were still three cases under consideration by the Ombudsman for which decisions had not yet been made.  However, the Ombudsman’s officer had confirmed that whilst two of them were still under consideration the third case was about to be closed as the complainant had taken the complaint no further.

 

The Committee acknowledge that it was important that the Council had an effective and robust Customer Complaints Procedure in place in order to minimise the instances of compensation being paid.

 

The Committee were informed that the Ombudsman’s letter and annual report for 2004/05 had been received recently which was complimentary about the way that the Council dealt with complaints.  The Committee considered whether the report and statistics should be published on the Council’s website.

 

RESOLVED: That

 

(a)

the Borough Solicitor and Monitoring Officer’s report on formal complaints be noted; and

 

(b)

The Local Government Ombudsman’s annual report for 2004/2005 and statistics be placed on the Council’s website.

 

 

 

Consideration was given to the Borough Solicitor & Monitoring Officer’s report advising the Committee on progress in a number of areas of work including a review of the Constitution, Codes of Conduct, complaints about Members and training and development for Members.

 

 

The Borough Solicitor explained that the review of the Constitution was a lengthy process and would need to be considered by this Committee and the Policy and Organisation Board before final approval by full Council.  The Chief Executive referred to the Council’s strategic improvement plan and proposals for producing a programme for the review of the Constitution.

 

Members alluded to the need for a commonsense approach to declarations of interest and a code of conduct for officers.

 

With regard to work being undertaken on a programme of training and development, the Committee were supplied with a copy of the final brochure detailing training opportunities that had been compiled following a survey carried out to identify Members’ needs.  In addition to the sessions in the brochure, Members considered that training in the areas of audit and finance and financial interests would be beneficial.

 

RESOLVED:  That

(a)  the Borough Solicitor and Monitoring Officer’s report be noted; and

 

 

(b)  a further report on areas of work for the Committee be presented to a future meeting.

 

 

There were no other items for discussion.