Agenda item

The Head of Internal Audit, Anti-Fraud and Assurance submitted a report confirming the Council’s compliance with the requirements for Councillors to submit annual declarations of interest.

In the ensuing discussion, the following matters were raised:

·         Whilst there were no specific verification arrangements in place to ensure that Councillors declared the matters they should, some basic checks were made to ensure that various sections were completed.  A process was, nevertheless in place, organised by staff of the Council Governance Unit, to ensure that declarations were submitted and appropriately processed.  There was also a specific requirement within the Members Code of Conduct to require declarations to be appropriately made.  If anything untoward was found appropriate sanctions could and would be taken.  From a governance point of view, all the necessary systems were in place to ensure that existing Members were reminded to submit their annual review of their declarations and for new Members to submit their declaration within 28 days of them being elected

·         Arising out of the above, Gareth Mills, representing the External Auditor commented that as part of their role they examined both Member and Officer declarations of interest.  He made particular reference to sampling checks made including with Companies House to investigate where or not appropriate declarations about transactions with other organisation were made.  No particular issues had been found previously although recommendations for improvements had been made within the Value for Money report in March.  Both he and Thilina de Zoyza would be looking at developments and actions arising, and reference would be included within the report later in the year

RESOLVED that the report be received and the assurance regarding the Council’s compliance with this important element of public accountability be noted.