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Agenda and minutes

General Purposes Committee - Tuesday 5 November 2013 7.15 pm

Venue: Committee rooms B & C - Merton Civic Centre, London Road, Morden SM4 5DX. View directions

Contact: Democracy Services

Items
No.	Item
1.	Apologies for absence Minutes: Councillor Janice Howard (Councillor Henry Nelless substituting)
2.	Declarations of interest Minutes: None were made
3.	Minutes of the meeting held on 26 September 2013 PDF 29 KB Minutes: RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting held on 26 September 2013 are agreed as a correct record.
4.	S106 agreements/undertakings - delegation to officers PDF 56 KB View the background to item 4. Additional documents: Appendix 1 Delegated s106 PAC report, 23/10/2013 Standards Committee , item 4. PDF 11 KB Appendix 2 - scheme of delegation report, 23/10/2013 Standards Committee , item 4. PDF 16 KB Minutes: Members agreed that the efficiency being produced should be quantified and targets reviewed as required. RESOLVED: 1) That the General Purposes Committee endorses the officer’s recommendation to widen the scope of planning applications that can be determined under delegated powers by amending Part 3F of the Council’s Constitution as set out in Appendix 2 so that certain planning applications where standard heads of terms of S106 agreements or undertakings are proposed need not be referred to the Planning Applications Committee. 2) That the General Purposes committee recommends to Council that it agrees the necessary constitutional amendments
5.	Report of the external auditor: Merton Council annual audit letter PDF 241 KB Minutes: Members discussed the letter with the External Auditors and the Director of Corporate Services. The overprovision for bad debt on NNDR – this provision was in the collection fund and would be used to close the gap for 2013/14; The risks previously unidentified related to older assets. The council had drawn the attention of the auditors to this; The scope of the external auditors’ work related to the statement of accounts – although they had identified some internal control issues it was a matter for Merton to determine its own internal control regime; The letter was noted.
6.	Report of the external auditor: Merton Council audit results report PDF 585 KB Minutes: Noted that this was an updated version of the report discussed at the September meeting.
7.	Report of the external Auditor: Merton pension fund audit results report PDF 562 KB Minutes: Noted that this was an updated version of the report discussed at the September meeting.
8.	Public Sector Internal Audit Standards PDF 55 KB Minutes: RESOLVED: 1) That the General Purposes Committee notes the Internal Assessment and the action plan 2) That the General Purposes Committee agrees the External Assessment
9.	Annual Governance Statement 2012/13 – Improvement Plan Update PDF 25 KB Minutes: Members discussed the update with the Director of Corporate resources: Management behaviours – The director agreed to circulate the themes to members The director agreed to provide timelines and target dates for items on the plan; Members were concerned that IT strategy issues was being scrutinised. They noted that a report was due to go to Overview and Scrutiny Commission in March/April 2014 and asked to be notified of the outcome of this;
10.	Work programme PDF 17 KB Minutes: March Constitutional issues – Financial Regulations and procedures, GP Committee terms of reference Report of the external auditors: Audit plan June Update on reporting of IT issues (minutes of OSC meeting to be circulated to members) Public sector internal audit standards – external assessment and action plan September Report of the external auditor: Audit results report (Merton) Report of the external auditor: Audit results report (Pension fund)