Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies for absence; the Chairman welcomed new and returning Members to the Committee.

The following declarations of interest were made in relation to minute 157 (Appointments to Outside Bodies 2021/22) –

Councillors Nicholas Bennett and Alexa Michael declared that they had Mytime passes.

Councillor Colin Hitchins declared that he was an employee of Biggin Hill Airport Limited.

In accordance with the Council’s Constitution, questions that are not specific to reports on the agenda must have been received in writing 10 working days before the date of the meeting - by 5pm on Tuesday 18^th May 2021.  

Questions specifically on reports on the agenda should be received within two working days of the normal publication date of the agenda.  Please ensure that questions specifically on reports on the agenda are received by the Democratic Services Team by 5pm on Tuesday 25^th May 2021.

No questions had been submitted.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meetings held on 23 March and 19 May 2021, excluding exempt information, be confirmed.

Report CSD21050

The Committee received a report setting out the nominations for appointments to outside bodies for 2021/21 received from the party groups.

RESOLVED that the nominations to outside bodies set out in Appendix 1 to the minutes be approved.

Report CSD21049

The Committee considered its draft work programme for the 2021/22 Council year, and discussed the following matters –

·  It was noted that there would be a review of the 2021 GLA election at the September meeting. It was suggested that the report needed to address the issue of the use of school premises as polling stations.

·  The report from Executive Assistants was, historically, submitted to the Committee’s February meeting to be considered along-side the Members’ Allowances Scheme. It was suggested that this should be moved to the March meeting as this was nearer to the end of the Council year.

·  There would be a report to the next meeting on 6^th July on arrangements for committee meetings – this would cover livestreaming. 

·  It was suggested that the Committee should consider whether Audit Sub-Committee should become a Committee in its own right, as with the Pensions Committee.

·  The Committee requested that a Licensing training/update presentation be arranged for their next meeting.

The Committee also received an update from David Dobbs, Head of Corporate Finance and Accounting, on the current position with regard to the audit of the Council’s accounts.

Objections to the 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19 accounts had been made by one resident. These objections largely concerned the waste disposal contract, but also referred to utilisation of property on the Civic Centre site for the 2018/19 accounts. The objections were lengthy and detailed. The situation was further complicated by the change in external auditor from KPMG to EY for 2018/19 onwards. The accounts for these three years had been completed but could not be signed off in full until the external auditors had finished their investigations into the objections.  Officers had pressed for a speedy resolution of the issues, and KPMG had now engaged specialist legal advisors.

For the 2018/19 accounts, EY had found errors in the property valuations carried out by Cushman and Wakefield. Consequently, new valuations had been carried out by Montagu Evans and the accounts had been completed. However, during the audit of the 2019/20 accounts EY Real Estate had queried the methodology used by Montagu Evans in relation to the treatment of investment properties, which were re-valued annually on a market value basis, and Montagu Evans had been asked to re-value these properties. The deadline for completing the 2019/20 accounts was 31st October 2020; many Councils had missed the deadline due to similar issues with valuations – it was recognised that this was a national issue. The Council’s Finance Team were currently working on the 2020/21 accounts – the statutory deadline for publication of the draft accounts was 31^st July 2021.

In response to questions, Mr Dobbs explained that the options for the external auditor in relation to objections to the accounts were to take no action, to issue a report with recommendations or a public interest report, which would incur adverse publicity for the Council. The expected outcome was a report, but investigations were still on-going and could take many months to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 158.

The minutes of the Audit Sub-Committee’s meeting on 9^th March 2021 were received.

RESOLVED that the Press and public be excluded during consideration of the item of business referred to below as it is likely in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings that if members of the Press and public were present there would be disclosure to them of exempt information.

The following summaries

refer to matters involving exempt information

The exempt minutes of the Committee’s meeting on 23 March 2021 were confirmed.

The Committee continued its consideration of issues relating to the audit of accounts.

The exempt minutes of the Audit Sub-Committee’s meeting on 9^th March 2021 were received.