Councillors met to discuss reviews into how Knowsley Council is run tonight.
At a short meeting of the borough ’s audit and governance committee, recently appointed independent chair, Stuart Green, convened over an agenda which included a series of reports presented by officers into how the council is run.
Plans for an independent chair for the committee was announced back in January as part of the borough’s response to the devastating Liverpool council best value inspection report produced by Max Caller.
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At the time, council leader Cllr Graham Morgan said: “It’s really important that we have robust governance arrangements in place, which are clear and transparent.
“Being held accountable and having that independent challenge is something that I strongly welcome.”
Issues on the table at tonight’s meeting, held at Huyton municipal building, included reports of external and internal audits as well as a register of the main risks faced by the council and its annual counter fraud report.
While there were questions and queries raised by independent chair Mr Green, who spoke positively about several of the reports, not a single question was asked by councillors on any item during the 30 minute meeting.
Here are three things we learned from tonight’s whistle-stop tour through the borough’s governance and audit arrangements.
1. Government accounts problems stopping borough accounts being signed off
An external audit report into the council by audit specialists Mazars was presented to the committee by external auditor Jerri Lewis.
Ms Lewis told the committee the borough’s 2020/21 account audit was unable to be completed and signed off due to an ongoing issue from central government over its whole government set of accounts.
Ms Lewis said: “We have received some group instructions from the national audit office in the last couple of days so we will endeavour to work with the finance team to make sure that work gets done.”
The process of auditing the 2021/22 accounts is due to start in earnest in August, with a report expected by the end of October.
Asked by Mr Green whether the October deadline was viable, Ms Lewis said it was, subject to an issue around the way infrastructure is reported is resolved- an issue not confined to Knowsley Council but one that affects councils across the country.
2. Community group fund was not being properly monitored
A report of the borough’s internal audits, where a specific council department reviews the way work is carried out across certain areas of the council, found there was no cause for concern in over 90% of council areas inspected.
Only 9% of council functions were found to have “moderate” cause for concerns with just one critical issue identified, an issue officers said has now been addressed.
That issue related to Knowsley Better Together funding. On the council website, Knowsley Better Together is described as a “new approach” to partnership working which “hopes to encourage a series of informal ‘deals’ between the council and residents and businesses.”
As part of that approach, funding has been handed out to community groups and organisations in the borough – something an internal audit found was had not been properly monitored.
Officers said that once the need to “verify expenditure and outcomes” of the groups was identified the recommendation was “addressed immediately.”
3. Cost of living crisis putting ‘significant pressure’ on council budgets
Discussing the borough’s strategic risk register, where areas of potential weaknesses are identified and plans to deal with issues that could arise are laid out, one officer said the cost of living crisis was a key factor cutting across many of the borough’s 30 risks.
Assistant executive director Jemma Jones said: “There is an impact in terms of our council budgets, we are really affected at financial management with the cost of living crisis putting significant pressure on our in year budgets.”
However, Ms Jones added: “The council does have a robust plan in place to manage this.”
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