Agenda item

The Committee will receive the indicative Audit Committee Work Plan for 2016/17 and 2017/18.

The Committee received a report providing the indicative work plan for the Committee for its proposed scheduled meetings for the remainder of the 2016/17 municipal year and for 2017/18.

The Director of Legal and Governance reported that at the workshop meeting held in November, 2016 there had been a discussion about the future terms of reference of this Committee.  The Work Programme had anticipated that this would be a matter considered at this meeting, however, he had written to the Chair to explain why this was not currently possible.  He reported that further work on this matter had been undertaken following the discussion at the workshop but it had been concluded that it would be advantageous to take account for the proposed reconfiguration of the Core Services for which he was to be the Executive Director from 1^st April, 2017 following his appointment by the Council.

It was the intention to bring other areas of core governance into the scope of the terms of reference of this Committee such as Information Governance, Performance Management, Workforce Development, and Health and Safety and to establish clear responsibility for reporting these into the Committee from amongst the Service Directors who would be reporting to him in the new Directorate after April.  To this end, therefore, it was proposed to bring a report to the April meeting on the revised terms of reference for discussion so that a revised work plan could be developed for implementation from the new municipal year.  The new terms of reference would be reported for approval at the Annual Council meeting.

In relation to the reorganisation, the Director of Legal and Governance informed the Committee that the Service Director Finance would be the Section 151 officer following the departure of the Director of Finance, Assets and IT in March and he also reported that Director of HR, Performance and Communications had left the Authority in December, 2016. 

Finally, he expressed the hope that these proposed changes reflect Members aspiration for the developing role of this Committee.

RESOLVED

(i)            that the core work plan for 2015/16 meetings of the Audit Committee be approved and reviewed on a regular basis; and

(ii)          that the proposals of the Director of Legal and Governance for the revised Terms of Reference and the developing role of this Committee be supported.