TONY JOHNSON
London Buses
INTERESTING discussions can be a lot like London Buses – you wait ages for the one you want to catch, then four turn up together. The first of these was a Wokingham Borough Council (WBC) audit committee meeting.
The other three were a town council meeting; a residents’ meeting; and a community engagement meeting – more about these later perhaps.
One genuine surprise
A member of the public turning up at one of WBC’s committee meetings is surprising. Actually when I think about it, it’s beyond surprising. And very refreshing it was, for participants as well as observers.
Paraphrasing and condensing the Q&A, the initial question was as to why there’d been no follow up since the Auditor’s report from 2016, when the audit rating was that although WBC’s Housing Rents risk management processes were adequate, they weren’t effective in managing the financial risk.
The committee then learned that good progress had been made reducing rent arrears from the reported level of £900k in March
2018, but the risk to the council wasn’t down sufficiently by the end of June to warrant changing the audit rating.
Although at least three of the six actions from the 2016 auditor’s report had made considerable progress, due to the level of debt this matter was going be kept under close review for the foreseeable future.
Followed by others
In the supplementary that followed, the audit committee learned that an earlier report by HQN in 2016 had a list of 62 recommendations on rent arrears management – a lot of which haven’t been implemented two-and- a-half years later and the question was why numbers of elderly or infirm tenants paying by direct debit / standing order should still be getting demand letters and statements for rent arrears in 2018.
The chairman expressed concern as to the 62 recommendations possibly not being the six which the audit committee had received an update on and requested that the senior
WBC finance manager present please find an answer; also that if the internal audit team were undertaking a review in November could this matter be added to their work programme.
It’s the nature of supplementary questions that they’re asked on the night, with little or no advance warning. The chairman’s reply and immediate action was the most impressive response to a supplementary question that I can recall from any WBC meeting.
Clear, direct and incisive. So it’ll be interesting to see what happens next.
Auditing the top team
After an introductory speech by an assistant the recently appointed Director of Adult Services, Angela Morris, gave the audit committee a briefing on the work of her directorate.
Covering adult safeguarding, learning from other Local Authorities, Budgeting and Workforce, the crisp and concise way in which she covered a range of topics was like a breath of fresh air, blowing the cobwebs away from any impressions as to the clarity or otherwise of WBC’s top staff.
Fielding questions on such matters as the impact of Brexit, skills shortages, and how WBC compares with other local authorities, it was a treat to observe someone on top of their game giving plain and straightforward answers on a range of difficult and complex questions.
So much so that it might challenge even the most inquisitive of our borough councillors into collectively revising their approach in time for the next meeting.
Ones that didn’t get away
With WBC’s external auditors present throughout, the committee reviewed the management of the treasury programme, the capital programme and the overall governance.
The questioning led to a range of ‘discoveries’ which included things like …
WBC projects only achieving 59% of their projected progress in any one year
Difficulties in getting budget holders to give accurate spending forecasts
An allegation that some councils are ignoring statutory guidance (i.e. tantamount to breaking the law)
An auditor’s comment that WBC is ‘quite highly geared’ with ‘very ambitious plans’
Data breaches in the Housing department – but none this year
Rent arrears reducing at a rate of £16k per month (i.e. approaching five years to fix the arrears)
Various typos including ‘There have not been three audit reviews receiving the third or fourth category of audit opinion’ (it was the word ‘not’ that was the typo. Oops).
That the 21st Century Council programme is on track to break even. ‘When’s it going to save money’ ? was the immediate question.
… among other things.
The last word
That member of the public’s question really was welcome. Following it up with a supplementary that blew the doors off the answer they’d just been given showed that it isn’t just borough councillors on the audit committee who are asking for improvements within WBC.
And having a pair of professionally qualified auditors accompanied by a pair of knowledgeable and inquisitive councillors on the audit committee, all working to investigate spending and governance, might just be the dawn of WBC improving its quality of selfcontrol.
Which would be no bad thing.