Items
No. |
Item |
1. |
Apologies for Absence
Minutes:
1.1
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Apologies for absence were
received from Councillor Josie Paszek and Liz Stanley.
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2. |
Declarations of Interest PDF 65 KB
Members to declare any
interests they have in the business to be considered at the
meeting.
Minutes:
2.1
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There were no declarations of interest from
members of the Committee.
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3. |
Minutes of Previous Meeting PDF 76 KB
To approve the minutes of the
meeting of the Committee held on 25 September 2014.
Minutes:
3.1
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The minutes of the meeting of the Committee
held on 25 September 2014 were approved as a correct record.
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4. |
Independent Review of South Yorkshire Digital Region Project PDF 87 KB
Report of the Interim Executive Director,
Resources.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
4.1
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The Director of Creative Sheffield introduced
a report of the Interim Executive Director, Resources that
presented the findings from the independent review undertaken by
KPMG of the South Yorkshire Digital Region Project and considered
the implications and lessons learned.
The report also provided an update on the close down of Digital
Region. Appended to the report were the Review Report and the
Cabinet report from September 2008. The review examined:
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·
The original business case
·
Governance arrangements
·
Information flows and decision making
·
Risk management; and
·
Procurement arrangements and specialist advice
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4.2
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The Director
stated that the project risks were set out in the business case and
the Council’s analysis of those risks as part of the decision
making process were felt to have been more robust than other
stakeholder authorities. The key findings from the Review report
had been accepted by the Leaders of the four South Yorkshire local
authorities. In conclusion, the Council knowingly entered into
considerable commercial risks. However, technological advances,
market conditions and delays in obtaining European approvals all
contributed to making the project fail commercially.
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4.3
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The Director of
Creative Sheffield and Interim Executive Director, Resources
responded to questions from members of the Committee.
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4.3.1
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On the issue of
sales and marketing targets and why officers felt that the BT price
would come down, the Director indicated that there were not enough
major Internet Service Providers (ISPs) on the network and there
were issues on the cost and difficulties with the equipment. At the
time, officers felt close to signing a deal with a major ISP and
that Ofcom would force BT to reduce its price. In respect of the
involvement with Ofcom, the correspondence was kept by DRL
Limited.
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4.3.2
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In terms of the
lessons learnt and how these were being shared, the Director
indicated that the Review Report had been discussed by the South
Yorkshire Leaders and the conclusions from the consideration by the
other South Yorkshire Audit Committees could be circulated to
members of this Committee. The Council’s internal procedures,
Programme Boards etc. would now apply different levels of rigour to
that in 2007. The Interim Executive Director stated that an
immediate lesson had been learnt with regard to the BDUK broadband
programme in that the Council was not taking the risk.
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4.3.3
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In response to a
question on Member involvement in the decision making process, the
Director indicated that the key decisions were taken by Members and
there were Cabinet Member briefings. However, there could have been
more Member briefings during the trading period. The Interim
Executive Director added that the project started with high level
involvement of the Leader and the Chief Executive but during the
mid-part of the project there was not clear Cabinet Member
leadership.
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4.3.4
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A Member asked
if there was any course of action that could have saved the
project. The Interim Executive Director indicated that there had
been sufficient attempts to seek to save the project.
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4.3.5
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A member asked
how the lessons learned would be ...
view the full minutes text for item 4.
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5. |
Revised Approach for Capital Delivery and Reporting PDF 1 MB
Report of the Assistant
Director, Capital and Major Projects.
Minutes:
5.1
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Following a request from the meeting of the
Committee on 17 July 2014, the Assistant Director of Capital and
Major Projects introduced a report of the Executive Director, Place
that provided an overview of the progress that had been achieved to
date in improving the delivery and management of the capital
programme and summarised the key works that were in development to
further improve the delivery of the capital programme.
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5.2
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The Assistant Director gave details of the
progress achieved to date on the Capital Delivery Partner, Project
Delivery Process, Capital Gateway Process and the three year
Capital Improvement Plan. He also outlined the ongoing and planned
improvements in respect of the Capital Programme Office, Capital
Delivery Service Restructure, Capital Project Reporting and
Monitoring and the consolidation of delivery teams.
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5.3
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The Assistant Director and Interim Executive
Director, Resources responded to questions from members of the
Committee
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5.3.1
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On whether the improvements were
over–processed, the Assistant Director indicated that it was
difficult to monitor performance without processes and the aim was
to streamline and rationalise those processes and build in
rigour.
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5.3.2
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A member asked why the consolidation of
delivery teams had not taken place. The Assistant Director stated
that a number of internal and external audit reviews had
recommended consolidation. However, one of the difficulties had
been for services to place trust in a different model. A move to a
strong sponsorship model and strong delivery team would help them
to implement that change. The Interim Executive Director added that
there was now consistent forecasting of financial spend and the
Assistant Director was putting in place consistent processes and
was on a steady improvement path. Over the last year this had been
an area of Member and officer priority and information on the
delivery of the capital programme was included in the monthly
budget monitoring report to the Cabinet.
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5.4
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Resolved: That the
Committee:-
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(a)
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notes the report and the progress that has
been achieved to date in improving the delivery of the capital
programme;
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(b)
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notes and supports the planned activity for
implementing further and continual improvements in the delivery of
the capital programme; and
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(c)
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requests the
Interim Director of Legal and Governance to include progress in
improving the delivery and management of the capital programme in
the Annual Government Statement Progress Report to this Committee
in January 2015.
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6. |
Exclusion of Public and Press
To identify items where
resolutions may be moved to exclude the press and
public.
(Note: The following reports
are not available to the public and press because they contain
exempt information described in Paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 of Part 1 of
Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as
amended:
·
Parking Services Audit (Item 8) – Paragraph 2 relating to
information which is likely to reveal the identity of an individual
and Paragraph 4 relating to information relating to
any consultations or negotiations, or contemplated consultations or
negotiations, in connection with any labour relations matter
arising between the Council or a Minister of the Crown and
employees of, or office holders under, the Council.
·
Strategic Risk Management (Item 9) – Paragraph 3 relating to
the financial or business affairs of any particular person,
including the authority holding that information)
Minutes:
6.1
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Resolved: That the public and
press be excluded from the meeting before discussion takes place on
the following items of business to be considered on the grounds
that, if the public and press were present during the transaction
of such business, there would be a disclosure to them of exempt
information as described in Paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 of Part 1 of
Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended:-
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·
Parking Services Audit Progress Against Outstanding Actions –
Paragraph 2 relating to information which is likely to reveal the
identity of an individual and Paragraph 4 relating to information
relating to any consultations or negotiations, or contemplated
consultations or negotiations, in connection with any labour
relations matter arising between the Council or a Minister of the
Crown and employees of, or office holders under, the Council.
·
Strategic Risk Management – Paragraph 3 relating to the
financial or business affairs of any particular person, including
the authority holding that information.
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7. |
Parking Services Audit - Progress Against Outstanding Actions
Report of the Executive
Director, Place.
(Note: The report is not available to the public and
press because it contains exempt information described in
Paragraphs 2 and 4 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local
Government Act 1972, as amended)
Minutes:
7.1
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The Director of
Regeneration and Development Services introduced a report of the
Executive Director, Place that provided an update on progress in
addressing the outstanding actions identified in the 2014 follow up
audit to the 2013 Internal Audit of Parking Services Income. The
appendices to the report included the 2013 and 2014 Audit reports
and an action tracker. The Parking Services Manager also attended
the meeting for this item.
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7.2
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The Director explained that not all the
recommendations from the 2013 audit had been implemented and there
had been a maximum focus in addressing this and progress was set
out in the action tracker. One of the lessons learnt had been that
the audit process was critical to the business role of the service.
He acknowledged that if the recommendations from the 2013 audit had
been addressed then the service would not have had to deal with
some of the subsequent issues.
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7.3
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The report also set out the change management
process for Parking Services and the Director referred to the
additional resources that had been invested to drive that process.
The focus had been on the process, quality assurance and long term
business needs of the service.
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7.4
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The Director reported on the positive progress
that had been made but he acknowledged that more of the
recommendations should have been actioned. Of the 18
recommendations identified in the follow-up report that had not
been completed, ten had now been completed, six were on track to be
completed in November/December and two had slipped but were due to
be completed in early December 2014. He highlighted the significant
amount of effort that had gone into dealing with the
recommendations.
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7.5
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Officers responded to questions from members
of the Committee.
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7.5.1
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The Director stated that the process for
implementing the recommendations should have been undertaken
quicker. Going forward, there was a quality assurance role and
officers were driving the change process.
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7.5.2
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The Director indicated that officers had
focussed on the high risk audit recommendations, how income was
monitored and the trends. There was previously a focus on the day
to day operation. Long term monitoring and a risk management plan
had been put in place and there was a focus on areas susceptible to
fraud. In terms of the slow progress in implementing the
recommendations, the Parking Services
Manager indicated that when additional resources had been brought
in there was faster progress. The Director added that it was about
being clear as a manager what were the top priorities.
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7.5.3
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The Assistant Director of Finance (Business
Partnering and Internal Audit) responded to a question on whether
she was satisfied with the direction of travel. She stated that
Internal Audit had not validated any of the information in the
progress report in order to be satisfied that the follow up audit
had been taken into account. She would have preferred that the
recommendations in the 2013 audit report had been implemented in a
timely fashion and should have been prioritised. ...
view the full minutes text for item 7.
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8. |
Strategic Risk Management
Report of the Interim Executive Director,
Resources.
(Note: The report is not available to the public and
press because it contains exempt information described in Paragraph
3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as
amended)
Minutes:
8.1
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The Corporate Risk Manager submitted a report
and gave a presentation that assessed:
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·
the Council’s current Risk Management
arrangements and the measures being implemented to further
strengthen and improve those arrangements;
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·
the Risk Management trend analysis since the
previous report to the Committee on 10 April 2014; and
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·
the current and emerging risks to delivery of the Council’s
strategic objectives and the controls in place to manage those
risks.
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8.2
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Appended to the report
was the Corporate Risk Management Plan for Quarter 1.
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8.3
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The Corporate Risk
Manager responded to questions from members of the Committee
relating to reputational risk and business continuity
plans.
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8.4
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Resolved: That the
Committee:-
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(a)
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notes the current
assessment of the Council’s Risk Management arrangements and
endorses the measures being taken to strengthen those
arrangements;
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(b)
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notes the improving
trend in management of risks; and
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(c)
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notes the current and
emerging risks and endorses the actions being taken to mitigate
those risks.
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9. |
Annual Audit Letter 2013/14 PDF 35 KB
Report of the Director, KPMG.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
9.1
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The Director, KPMG submitted the Annual Audit
Letter 2013/14 that summarised the key findings from their 2013/14
audit of the Council’s Financial Statements and Value for
Money conclusion. She also suggested submitting a report to the
Committee on progress with the audit and non-audit work undertaken
by KPMG.
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9.2
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Resolved: That the
Committee:-
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(a)
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notes the contents of the Annual Audit Letter
2013/14; and
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(b)
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requests the Director, KPMG to submit a
progress report on audit and non-audit work to the January 2015
meeting of the Committee.
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10. |
Work Programme PDF 90 KB
Report of the Interim Director of Legal and
Governance.
Minutes:
10.1
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The Interim Director of Legal and Governance
submitted a report providing details of the Committee’s work
programme to April 2015.
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10.2
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Resolved: That the Committee
approves the work programme with the addition of (a) an External
Audit Progress Report in January 2015 and (b) consideration of any
issues arising from report on the Assessment of Child Sexual
Exploitation Services in Sheffield at a future meeting of the
Committee.
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11. |
Dates of Future Meetings
To note that meetings of the Committee will be held
at 6.00 p.m. on:-
·
11 December 2014 (additional meeting if
required)
·
8 January 2015
·
12 February 2015 (additional meeting if
required)
·
12 March 2015 (additional meeting if
required)
·
9 April 2015
Minutes:
11.1
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It
was noted that meetings of the Committee would be held at 6.00 p.m.
on:-
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·
11 December 2014 (additional meeting if
required)
·
8 January 2015
·
12 February 2015 (additional meeting if
required)
·
12 March 2015 (additional meeting if
required)
·
9 April 2015
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