To appoint a Chairperson of the Joint Committee for the ensuing year.

RESOLVED:                   Due to the fact that a number of Joint Committee Members were absent having given their apologies, the Joint Committee agreed to defer the appointment of Chairperson for the ensuing year to a future meeting.

To appoint a Vice-Chairperson of the Joint Committee for the ensuing year.

RESOLVED:                   Due to the fact that a number of Joint Committee Members were absent having given their apologies, the Joint Committee agreed to defer the appointment of Vice-Chairperson for the ensuing year to a future meeting.

To receive apologies for absence (to include reasons, where appropriate) from Members / Officers.

Apologies for absence were received from the following Members/Officer:-

Councillor B Jones – Unwell

Councillor N Clarke – Prior commitment

Councillor P Williams – Other Council business

Councillor C E Smith – Other Council business

F Mantle – Annual leave

To receive declarations of personal and prejudicial interest (if any) from Members/Officers in accordance with the provisions of the Members’ Code of Conduct adopted by Council from1st September 2008.

None

To receive for approval the minutes of a meeting of the Catalogue Supplies Joint Committee dated 25 June 2015

RESOLVED:                   That the Minutes of a meeting of the Catalogue Supplies Service Joint Committee dated 25 June 2015, be approved as a true and accurate record.

The Finance Manager – Technical and Corporate submitted a report, the purpose of which, was to present the audited Statement of Accounts for the financial year 31^st March 2015.

The Accounts & Audit Regulations required that the Joint Committee approve the audited Statement of accounts by 30^th September.

The Chief Accountant explained that the unaudited Statement of Accounts were placed on public deposit following Joint Committee approval in June 2015. KPMG the external auditors appointed for the Joint Committee by the Wales Audit Office had now completed their audit and had not made any amendments other than some minor presentational adjustments. The surplus therefore remained at £301,000 with total reserves of £1.306million as previously reported to the Joint Committee in June 2015.

The audited accounts she explained, were attached as Appendix 1 to the report (pages 13-44) and had been produced in line with the Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting in the UK for 2014.  There were no changes to the accounts, however, the Chief Accountant pointed out that the cash position as shown on page 38 of the Statement of Accounts had increased from £425,000 at 31.3.2014 to £618,000 as at the 31.3.2015. As with all financial statements, she added that the cash flow position was a snapshot in time, with the position changing daily. However it ass encouraging to note that the Catalogue Supplies Service continued to maintain a healthy cash position which will be partly used to support the relocation plans of the service. The impact on useable reserves and estimated surplus remaining will be closely monitored to ensure that any costs associated with the relocation are affordable and won’t have a negative impact on cash balances.

Paragraph 4.2 of the report provided details of the mutual responsibilities of the auditor and the audited body which were expressed in Appendix 2 & 3 of the report

The Letter of Representation, which is attached as Appendix 2 to the report, (pages 59-61) confirmed to the best of one’s knowledge and belief, having made appropriate enquiries of other Officers of the Catalogue Supplies Joint Committee, certain assurances to the auditors regarding the financial statements for Catalogue Supplies Joint Committee for the year ended 31 March 2015. This letter would require signing by the Chairperson of the Joint Committee and the Section 151 Officer who acts as the Treasurer to the Joint Committee confirmed the Chief Accountant.

The auditors had also prepared an “Audit of Financial Statements Report for 2014-15”, which appeared at Appendix 3,(pages 63 to 74 of the report). It summarised the key issues identified during the consideration of the Statement of Accounts and Annual Governance Statement. The auditors identified two internal control weaknesses during the audit in respect of the stock count control process, and recommended that:

·         Checks should be put in place to ensure that stock balances are updated accurately with the results of the stock count, and

·         That they should be made aware of the process including any recounts so that timely  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22.

The Business Operations Manager BCBC submitted a report, the purpose of which, was to apprise Members of the Service Trading and Operational Performance during the financial year to date.

He explained that the JSS provided a single source supplies facility for each of the partnering Authorities, through delivery via stores and a direct sourcing function for items of common and repetitive spend. It demonstrated savings to customers and schools through economies of scale.

As part of the regular reports to the Joint Committee, the value of Service Sales turnover for the relevant period, as measured against the sales target (together with comparison to the same period last year) was outlined in Table 1 of the report.

The Business Operations Manager confirmed, that Stores Based turnover had seen a slight increase on the previous year. However, due to the strategy of generally decreasing prices across the stock range and an enhanced budget range of products in order to attract new business, overall quantity turnover for the year was up on the previous year.

He went on to confirm, that Direct turnover had seen a considerable increase on the previous year due mainly to educational refurbishment projects across all authorities including the completion of Aberdare Community School, Coity Primary, Llwyncrwyn Primary, Treorchy Primary and various Flying Start initiatives. Again there was a general increase across the non-Joint Authority areas highlighting the continuing expansion of use of the Service outside its core areas.

A summary of revenue budget expenditure/income for the financial year to 31 August 2015 was provided in Table 4 with the main exceptions being:-

Employees – an expected underspend of £23,000 due to decreased staff costs.

Premises – an expected underspend of £24,000 due to an extension of shared building costs with other departments located at County Borough Supplies.

Transport – an expected increase in transport costs due to expanded usage of the Service in non-Joint Authority areas.

Finance/Support Services – an expected underspend of £8,000 from a reduction in recharges due to reduced corporate budgets.

The Business Operations Manager confirmed that for comparative purposes, the Adjusted Actual financial position for the April to August period in 2014 was a surplus of £146,000 and in the same period for 2013 was a surplus of £107,000. The Adjusted Actual figure does not reflect the increase in trading turnover against target which currently is estimated at £45,000 above target.

He reminded Members that Monitoring reports were presented to the Joint Committee in relation to core performance indicators of the Service, with the  summary of information provided for the year to 31 August 2015, together with the final outcomes for 2014-15 for comparison in Table 5 of the report.

The Service had been actively seeking to reduce stock holding levels this financial year with a reduction from £672,000 (9.75 weeks) at this time last September compared to £615,000 currently. This has had a slight impact on product availability levels compared to the 96.38% reported on the previous September report.

The Business Operations  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23.

The minutes and report relating to the following items are not for publication as they contain exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 14 of Part 4 and Paragraph 21 of Part 5 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information)(Variation) (Wales) Order 2007.

If following the application of the public interest test the Joint Committee resolves pursuant to the Act to consider these items in private, the public will be excluded from the meeting during such consideration.

RESOLVED:               That under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972 as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) (Wales) Order 2007, the public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following items of business as they contained exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 14 of Part 4 and Paragraph 21 of Part 5 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) (Wales) Order 2007.

Following the application of the public interest test, it was resolved that pursuant to the Act referred to above, to consider the under-mentioned items in private with the public being excluded from the meeting.

                   Minute No.                                  Summary of Items:

                        25                                           Approval of Exempt Minutes

                        26                                           Relocation of the Joint Supplies Service

To receive for approval the exempt minutes of a meeting of the Catalogue Supplies Joint Committee dated 25 June 2015

RESOLVED:                       That the exempt Minutes of a meeting of the Catalogue Supplies Joint Committee meeting dated 25 June 2015 be approved as a true and accurate record.