Minutes of Previous Meeting PDF 28 KB - Meetings, agendas, and ...

COVENTRY CITY COUNCIL
MINUTES OF THE AUDIT AND PROCUREMENT COMMITTEE
Held at 4.00 pm on 3 June 2013
Members Present:
Employees Present:
Councillor Hazel Sweet (Chair)
Councillors Bains, Harvard, Sandy, Blundell (Substitute
for Councillor Sawdon), and Thay (substitute for
Councillor Singh)
F Collingham (Chief Executives), L Commane,
P Jennings, S Mangan and L Welton (Finance and Legal
Services), S Lal and H Peacocke (Community and
Workforce Services)
The Chair welcomed everybody to the first meeting of the Audit and Procurement
Committee and invited Officers to introduce themselves to the Members.
1. Apologies
Cllr D Sawdon, Cllr. B. Singh
2. Declarations of Interest
None
3. To Confirm the Minutes of the Audit Committee meeting held on 10th
April 2013
The minutes as presented were confirmed by the meeting and signed by
the Chair
4. Matters Arising
A confidential briefing note on the NUCKLE project had been circulated to
all Members of the Committee
5. Work Programme 2013/14 and Outstanding Issues
The meeting considered a draft work programme for 2013/14. It was
noted that the July and September meetings would deal largely with
statutory issues around the Annual Statement of Accounts and the
Annual Governance Statement. The other meetings would be more
flexible.
An Audit (only) Committee induction pack would be sent to all Committee
Members at the earliest opportunity.
The meeting considered the outstanding issues brought forward and
agreed a schedule to address them.

6. Audit and Procurement Committee Training
The meeting noted that training and development would be provided for
Committee Members to assist them to carry out their roles on the
Committee. Steve Mangan and Paul Jennings would be available to
advise Members and provide training where required, which would enable
Members to constructively challenge, where appropriate.
A Procurement pack would be issued to Committee Members advising
them on procurement procedures
7. Statement of Accounts Training
The Committee heard that the Annual Statement of Accounts must be
prepared by the end of June, when the Council’s Section 151 Officer signs
off the draft accounts, which would come to the Committee on 8 July. The
External Auditors would then consider the draft accounts and send them
to the Committee for approval in September (16 September). The draft
statement would be issued to members on 30 June and it would be very
helpful if Members raised any queries before the July meeting.
The Statement of Accounts would be prepared to CIPFA guidance, by
professional Officers. The Committee could also be confident that Internal
Audit had been monitoring and carrying out their duties throughout the
year.
8. New ways of Working
The Committee heard that the Chair had requested Officers to review
expenditure across the Community and Workforce Services Directorate
with a view to achieving savings and identifying new ways of working.
Proposals would be brought to the August meeting for consideration and
recommendation to Cabinet/ Cabinet Members.
9. Procurement Progress Reports
From August the Committee would receive monthly Progress Reports on
procurement matters, showing savings achieved against targets across
the Council. It was noted that some of these reports, or parts of the
reports might have to be considered in private where they disclosed
sensitive financial information.
(The Meeting closed at 5.10 pm)
Signed: ___________________
Chair
Date: _____________