Issue - meetings

The Annual Governance Statement (AGS) updated the Committee on progress against the significant governance issues monitored during 2015/16, the status of those issues and the new issues arising from the 2015/16 AGS for monitoring in 2016/17.

The Council must review its systems of internal control and governance annually and assure itself that its internal control environment was effective.  The assurance framework set out the sources of assurance that were relied upon on to enable preparation of the Annual Governance Statement.  These included the work of the internal auditors and of directors and managers within the Council who had responsibility for the development and maintenance of the internal control environment, and also the comments made by the external auditors and other review agencies and inspectorates.  The Head of Audit opinion set out in the internal audit annual report formed a key element of the review, as did the Council’s work on risk and performance management.

The Annual Governance Statement covered all significant corporate systems, processes and controls, spanning the whole range of the Council’s activities, including in particular those designed to ensure that:

·      the Council’s policies were implemented in practice;

·      high quality services were delivered efficiently and effectively;

·      the Council’s values and ethical standards were met;

·      laws and regulations were complied with;

·      required processes were adhered to;

·      financial statements and other published performance information were accurate and reliable;

·      human, financial, environmental and other resources were managed efficiently and effectively.

The AGS was required to disclose any issues that the Council considered to be significant governance issues.  The three issues identified in the 2014/15 Annual Governance Statement, Scheme of Delegation (oneSource), Declaration of Interest, and Assurance had been monitored by management and the Governance Group throughout the year with regular updates to the Audit Committee. These issues had now progressed and two new issues had been agreed for inclusion in the draft 2015/16 AGS and monitoring during 2016/17; Havering Scheme of Declaration and Commissioning & Contracts (including compliance with procurement rules). Actions to address each of these governance issues were set out in the statement and progress would be monitored throughout 2016/17 by the Governance Board, CMT and Audit Committee.

Officers had indicated that as part of the Commissioning and Contracts work consideration would have to be given to the risks around the requirement for local authority employees to be fluent to level 7 English. This would impact on both contractors and commissioners who often employ migrants. This would be a key focus when awarding new contracts.

Officers would be reviewing the Risk Register.

The Committee agreed the 2015/16 Annual Governance Statement.