The Interim Chief Officer – Finance, Performance and Change submitted a report, the purpose of which, was to present to the Governance and Audit Committee the Annual Governance Statement 2020-21 (AGS) for approval and inclusion within the unaudited Statement of Accounts 2020-21.

This item was presented by the Chief Executive.

The report reminded Members, that Regulation 5 (2) of the Accounts and Audit (Wales) Regulations 2014, requires an authority to undertake, as part of its arrangements for corporate governance, an annual review of governance and report on internal control.

The Chief Executive explained that good corporate governance requires the active participation of Members and officers across the Council. These arrangements are reviewed on an annual basis and the findings used to update the AGS. This helps to ensure the continuous improvement of the Council’s corporate governance culture. The inclusion of the AGS within the Statement of Accounts provided Committee with an overall appraisal of the controls in place to manage the Council’s key risks and identified where improvements need to be made. 

The draft AGS 2020-21 has been reviewed by Corporate Management Board (CMB) and Cabinet. The draft AGS was attached at Appendix A to the report.

The Chief Executive confirmed that there had been and still were, going forward, some very significant challenges to be met, for example, ICT, home working, the delivery of certain provisions of the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021, so continual review of the way the Council operates would be needed to overcome these going forward.

He also confirmed that the AGS will be reviewed as part of the external audit on the Statement of Accounts and should reflect any governance issues right up to the date that the Auditor General for Wales signs off the Statement of Accounts 2020-21.

The Chairperson commended the document that supported the covering report and was pleased to see that a lot of work had been committed to its narrative and it was user friendly. It clearly stated the actions the Authority had taken to manage work and governance issues during the pandemic and the impact this has had on the business of the Council.

A Member referred to page 212 of the report and the Table identifying the well-being goals/objectives and she wondered why, against the objective of Wellbeing goals/objectives, there was not a tick against the objective entitled ‘A Resilient Wales – and Helping people in Communities to be more Healthy and Resilient.’

The Interim Chief Officer – Finance, Performance and Change confirmed that there was a reason for this and she would confirm this to the Member outside of the meeting.

The Member asked a further question, namely on page 216 and the Table detailing Welsh Government Hardship Fund Claims, it confirmed that certain categories were disallowed in terms of applications to Welsh Government (WG) in the form of cost recovery and income reimbursements, including ICT costs.

The Chief Executive confirmed that ICT had funded 50% of ICT costs with the Council funding the other 50%. In most cases however, applications made to WG had in the main been fairly successful, since the inception of Covid-19.

The Interim Chief Officer – Finance, Performance and Change added that some of the applications that had not been successful, were where the Council had made its local decision to provide something themselves or continued to provide something, for example free car parking in town centres, which did not then qualify for a cost reimbursement under the Welsh Government Hardship Fund criteria.

The Chairperson noted that a review of the Council’s Financial Procedure Rules had not been fully carried out since 2017, and she therefore asked was there any intention to review these in the immediate future.

The Interim Chief Officer – Finance, Performance and Change assured Members that where changes have been required periodically, these have been made. Further revisions as part of a future desktop study, would be recommended by the Finance Team to full Council, in due course.

RESOLVED:                            That the Committee approved the draft Annual Governance Statement 2020-21 at Appendix A and agreed its inclusion within the unaudited Statement of Accounts 2020-21.