Agenda and minutes

Governance, Audit, Risk Management and Standards Committee - Tuesday 26 November 2024 6.30 pm

Venue: The Auditorium - Harrow Council Hub, Kenmore Avenue, Harrow, HA3 8LU. View directions

Contact: Arun Birah, Deputy Electoral Services Manager  Tel: 020 8424 1196 E-mail:  arun.birah@harrow.gov.uk

Media

Items
No. Item

150.

Attendance by Reserve Members

To note the attendance at this meeting of any duly appointed Reserve Members.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED:  To note the attendance of the following duly constituted Reserve Members:

 

Ordinary Member

 

Reserve Member

Councillor Ghazanfar Ali

Councillor David Perry

 

151.

Declarations of Interest

To receive declarations of disclosable pecuniary or non pecuniary interests, arising from business to be transacted at this meeting, from all Members present.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED:  To note that no interests were declared.

152.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 174 KB

That the minutes of the meeting held on 24 September 2024 be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED:  That the minutes of the meeting held on 24 September 2024 be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

153.

Public Questions

To note any public questions received.

 

Questions will be asked in the order in which they were received.  There will be a time limit of 15 minutes for the asking and answering of public questions.

 

[The deadline for receipt of public questions is 3.00 pm, Thursday 21st November 2024.  Questions should be sent to publicquestions@harrow.gov.uk  

No person may submit more than one question].

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED:  To note that no public questions had been received.

154.

Petitions

To receive petitions (if any) submitted by members of the public/Councillors.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED:  To note that no petitions had been received.

155.

Deputations

To receive deputations (if any).

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED:  To note that no deputations had been received.

156.

References from Council and other Committees/Panels

To receive references from Council and any other Committees or Panels (if any).

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED:  To note that no references had been received.

Recommended Item

Additional documents:

157.

Treasury Management Mid-Year Report 2024/25 pdf icon PDF 291 KB

Report of the Strategic Director of Finance

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chair welcomed the Officer to the committee to his first meeting.  The Officer presented the Committee with the Treasury Management Mid-Year Report 2024/25 and confirmed that:

 

·                 The treasury function had complied with the prudential indicators and the treasury indicators that were set in the treasury management strategy, which was presented to members earlier in the year.

 

·                 There had been no repayment and no new borrowing from April 2024

 to 30 September 2024.

 

·                 There had been a small growth in the portfolio size, which was expected.

 

The Chair wanted to know the actual borrowing amount, to which the Officer  confirmed that it stood at £417m.  It was further explained that the value of investments had increased and that the total value of investments had increased from March 2024 to September 2024 and the rate of return had decreased.

 

The Council’s investment income budget for 2024/25 was £1.75m, of that £1.1m was designated for the West London Waste Authority at a fixed interest rate of 7.604%.

 

It was not anticipated that the borrowing would increase in the next six months.  Temporary/short term borrowing may be a possibility, it was highlighted that the last time the council borrowed was in 2019 at an amount £100m.  There were other options available such as grants which would be explored rather than borrowing.

 

The Chair wanted to know what the projected borrowing costs were, however, the officer did not have this information to hand and would email this information to the Chair.

 

Resolved to RECOMMEND:  to Cabinet

 

That

 

(1)            the Mid – Year Treasury Management position for 2024/25 be noted.

 

It was further

 

RESOLVED:  That

 

(2)            the report be noted.

Resolved Items

Additional documents:

158.

Information Report - Use of Urgency Procedure - Governance, Audit, Risk Management and Standards Committee pdf icon PDF 120 KB

Report of the Strategic Director of Legal and Governance

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED:  That the Use of Urgency Procedure – Governance, Audit, Risk Management and Standards Committee report attached on pages 13-22 be noted.

159.

Statement of Accounts 2022/23 - Audited and 2023/24 Audit Update pdf icon PDF 124 KB

Report of the Strategic Director of Finance

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Members received a report which audited the Statement of Accounts for 2022-23 subject to the issue of the audit opinion.

 

The Strategic Director of Finance presented the report and confirmed that external auditors had completed their review.  It was noted that although there were audit adjustments, no changes were made to the useable reserves. Appendix 5 of the officer report included the auditors annual report for 2022/23 which included the summary of the work undertaken for the year ending 31 March 2023.  It was confirmed that the drafts accounts for 2023/24 were being presented this week and the public inspection report would start week beginning 2 December 2024.  The amended backstop date was 28 February 2025.

 

Representatives from Mazars felt that there was a significant weakness in the Council’s arrangement to secure value for money.  However, it was confirmed that no correspondence or objections were received from local electors.

 

The testing of other land, building and investment property valuations performed during the year identified a material misstatement due to the application of inappropriate land values.  This resulted in a downward amendment of £139m to other land and buildings and £0.1m to investment properties. In addition to this, several schools had inappropriate rates of building costs applied by the valuer resulting in an upward amendment of £10.4m.  A further error was identified during the investment property testing whereby the valuers had not provided an updated valuation for a single asset, which resulted in a downward amendment of £3.9m.

 

In considering the report, Members asked questions and the Mazars representatives confirmed that:

 

·                 The downward adjustment of £139m was due to the fact that the Valuer had changed.  The incoming valuer was overly optimistic about land values, which led to a significant adjustment.

 

·                 The report took longer than expected as there were many adjustments to implement, with necessary  testing taken place.  A full audit would  not take place in 2023/24 and therefore, would not incur additional work than what was already identified.

 

·                 For 2023/24 Public Sector Audit Appointments Limited (PSAA) have not prescribed the fees payable for undertaking procedures to issue a disclaimed audit report.  The PSAA scale fee was £391,578. It was estimated that to complete the full Value for money (VFM) responsibilities, which requires 50% of the scale fee.

 

·                 A typo was identified in the  auditor’s report of findings, there was no section 7 on the report, section 7 should be referred to as section 6.

 

·                 All recommendations on previous reports were considered and built into the process, this and the progress made would be reflected in the 2024/25 report.  Not all recommendations from 2020/21 had been implemented, a number of recommendations remained outstanding.  To which the officer would confirm this in full detail.

 

·                 It was requested that a list of all observations be provided to confirm which observations were closed as they had already been implemented by the Council.

 

It was highlighted that due to the limited amount of time the auditors would issue a disclaimed report for the year  ...  view the full minutes text for item 159.

160.

Annual Complaints and Ombudsman report and update on complaints against Members 2023/24 pdf icon PDF 287 KB

Report of the Strategic Director of Legal and Governance

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee received a report which outlined the overview of complaints received throughout 2023/24.  It included complaints within the council, ombudsman complaints, the housing ombudsman and complaints against elected members.

 

It was noted, that the Council handled over 5,600,000 enquiries in 2023/24 across its communication channels and were involved in over ten million service interactions including bin collections and library visits.  In total, there were 3,656 complaints received in 2023/24 of which 115 were escalated to stage II. With no corporate complaints IT system in place, information was kept locally detailing timescales.  However, this information had shown that 94% of complaints were responded to within the targeted timescale.

 

The Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) received 101 complaints last year and investigated twenty-six (26%) of these.  The remainder were rejected by the ombudsman for various reasons.  The number of complaints investigated and upheld were broadly in line with the West London region as well as with other similar sized local authorities across the country.

 

It was highlighted that in November 2023/24 the Housing Ombudsman published its Landlord Report for Harrow and cases referred (Appendix C). Over the course of the year it made 21 findings (14 of maladministration, 1 of no maladministration and 6 outside of its jurisdiction).  Majority of complaints were around repairs and property conditions

 

A restructure had begun in Housing Services and IT system had been replaced. It had been recognised that work improvement was needed in customer engagement with residents.

 

It was confirmed that there were 6 complaints against elected members, 4 of which were found to not breach the code of conduct, in 1 case the complainant did not respond when asked for further details and another case an amicable solution was agreed.

 

Discussion centred around stage 1 and stage 2 complaints, from which it was confirmed that council complaints were held locally.  Planning and parking complaints were usually found to be challenges rather than actual complaints.  Residents could complain via the website or by using their ‘My Harrow’ account which would enable user to see the progress of their complaint.

 

The complaints process was outlined on the website, with complainants updated at each stage of the complaint process.  The majority of complaints related to environmental services such as missed bins, removal of fly tipping and road maintenance.  Monthly meetings were held with the Leader of the Council and the Portfolio Holder for Cleaner Streets & Public Safety to identify how the number of complaints regarding missed bins could be reduced, these meetings had proven to be successful.

 

RESOLVED:  That the report be noted.