Cabinet (Wirral Council) 10th October 2013 | Minutes silence (Sylvia Hodrien) | Birkenhead Priory Heritage Lottery Grant | Declarations of Interest | Minutes | Annual Governance Statement 2012/2013

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Youtube Playlist of Cabinet meeting of 10th October 2013

Cabinet (Wirral Council) 10th October 2013 | Minutes silence (Sylvia Hodrien) | Birkenhead Priory Heritage Lottery Grant | Declarations of Interest | Minutes | Annual Governance Statement 2012/2013

Prior to the first item the Chair of Wirral Council’s Cabinet, Cllr Phil Davies asked for people to stand for a minute’s silence in response to the news of the death of former councillor Sylvia Hodrien. Once the minute’s silence had finished, he reported the news (which was already reported by the Wirral Globe two days ago) that Wirral Council had been successful in obtaining a Heritage Lottery Grant for Birkenhead Priory of £393,100.

He said that the money would be used to improve the visitor experience, for a digital learning pack for schools and would lead to opportunities for volunteers. Cllr Davies was “delighted” at this “really good news story” and thanked the team at Wirral Council that had applied for the funding. He asked if Cllr Chris Meaden wanted to make any comments?

Cllr Chris Meaden referred to Jo McGuire the conservationist and pointed that this was the second Heritage Lottery Grant that Wirral Council had received for Birkenhead Priory. She also thanked the team.

1. Declarations of Interest 4:00

Cllr Phil Davies suggested that for item 17 (Proposed changes to school funding formula) that they make a block interest declaration as many of the Cabinet were school governors. Cabinet agreed to a block declaration of interest.

Cllr Harry Smith asked if he needed to declare that his brother was a lay reader at Birkenhead Priory? Cllr Phil Davies told them he didn’t need to.

2. Minutes 4:41

Cllr Phil Davies asked if Cabinet agreed the minutes of the last Cabinet meeting held on the 19th September? Cabinet did agree the minutes so Cllr Phil Davies signed them.

FINANCE
3. Annual Governance Statement 2012/2013 5:04

This item had a report and three appendices, appendix 1 (Annual Governance Statement), appendix 2 (Significant Governance Issues Action Plan) and appendix 3 (CIPFA (Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy) framework).

Cllr Phil Davies, Cabinet Member for Finance said that the Annual Governance statement was an important document and a draft had been presented to the Audit and Risk Management Committee meeting of the 18th September. He wanted to make a few general comments, first that he was pleased to see references to the progress made on getting Council’s finances on a sustainable footing which was welcome. Cllr Davies also said the report mentioned work on a new vision for Wirral Council and that there would be a councillor’s training session on Saturday to look at that.

He said that they’d be having an annual policy Council meeting in November of this year to look at the future direction of the Council and refresh the Corporate Plan. Ed – The policy Council meeting will be in December as was mentioned in an earlier blog post.

Cllr Davies said they’d done a lot of work on improving their corporate management procedures and making sure they got their risk management in good order. In section five of the Annual Governance Statement he said there were a number of challenges ahead, such as the bad debts issue, saying “I think we’ve taken quite strong and prompt action to address the bad debts”. Cllr Davies wanted to draw Cabinet’s attention to the conclusion which referred to the auditors being pleased about considerable progress made to address the governance issues and that this had been reflected in the recent Corporate Peer Challenge report that was debated in Cabinet and Council.

He said that it also recognised a number of developments put in place to address the further challenges in section five and that they needed to agree a plan and review process to check that the items were addressed. Cllr Davies described it as “generally an encouraging report and lots of progress has been made but a fair amount of progress still to be done”. He asked Cabinet to agree the recommendations, which were that the Annual Governance Statement, action plan for 2012/2013 and updated code on corporate governance were all approved by Cabinet. Cabinet agreed this.

Continues at Cabinet (Wirral Council) 10th October 2013 Cllr Phil Davies “we’re not out the woods yet by any means”.

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Incredible: Cllr Foulkes “we seem to have some whistleblowers who are courted, almost feted”

A report on Wirral Council’s Audit and Risk Management Committee Incredible: Cllr Foulkes “we seem to have some whistleblowers who are courted, almost feted”

Incredible: Cllr Foulkes “we seem to have some whistleblowers who are courted, almost feted”

The above quote is from Cllr Foulkes at Wednesday’s Audit and Risk Management Committee in a long comment on Wirral Council and whistleblowing which starts here.

His extremely honest comments call for a further report on the BIG & ISUS business grants program, partly because the Council’s auditors won’t sign off on Wirral Council’s accounts until it’s resolved. Surely after spending an estimated £50,000 on reports by Grant Thornton’s forensic department an officer at Wirral Council must have some answers for Cllr Foulkes? He accuses whistleblowers of raising issues that "drag the Council back into the past" and hopes (rather optimistically) that all the outstanding whistleblowing issues will be resolved "simultaneously".

He then went on to say that some whistleblowers were "courted almost feted" whereas others were forgotten, such as the group over the Highways and Engineering Service Procurement Exercise contract. The whistleblowing over the Highways and Engineering Service Procurement Exercise contract hasn’t been forgotten. In that case the name of one of the whistleblowers, who wanted to remain anonymous was published on Wirral Council’s website. The matters raised by that group were written about at length by the independent person, Richard Penn (whose report was published) and although not everyone agrees with Penn’s opinion and interpretation of events, in most people’s minds the matters regarding the senior officer suspensions has been resolved. Colas’s contract ends next year and will be put out to tender with Colas stating that they won’t bid for it.

Cllr Foulkes also believes that "whoever blows the whistle or complains should be taken seriously and dealt with as efficiently and quick but in all senses fairly". He also said he finds the whistleblowing issue "quite worrying". Would whistleblowers be offered and be paid large amounts of money if they had been treated fairly? He also said that they "have to be fair to those in the firing line of a complaint". The whistleblowing concerns of late haven’t been because of one anonymous and unknown Inspector Clouseau type employee that sadly Wirral Council can’t sack, but have been brought about by systemic failings in Wirral Council’s corporate governance systems and its culture. These two areas are the responsibility of many different individuals including its politicians. Cllr Foulkes said that "words I’ve said tonight may be misconstrued".

He said that many councillors found themselves being contacted by people with complaints, complaints that he found the resolution of "almost impossible". He said he "did not believe whistleblowers should ever be used in a political fashion" and that councillors "don’t seem to have an up to date picture" as to how whistleblowers concerns were being resolved.

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Why Wirral Council’s auditors state Wirral Council doesn’t provide value for money

In an audit report released to the public on the 6th September written by Wirral Council’s auditors Grant Thornton, they anticipate issuing a qualified “adverse” opinion on Wirral Council’s arrangements to provide value for money.

Their report also refers to “continuing concerns raised by regulators” and how “residents also continue to raise concerns with us“. They conclude that during the financial year 2012/13 that “the Council’s arrangements for securing financial resilience were inadequate during this time” and that “the Council accepts that for 2012/13 it was less than adequate and improvements were needed in its financial management“.

The auditors went on to state that “The Council had yet to fully address the corporate governance weaknesses which have been repeatedly identified in respect of key issues such as whistleblowing, conflicts of interest, compliance with procedures, risk management, Internal Audit and providing value for money. In addition there was a high incidence of non-compliance with procedures” and that “there were weaknesses in corporate arrangements for risk management, compliance with policies, procedures and internal control.”

Their final conclusion is “that the Council did not put in place proper arrangements to secure economy, efficiency and effectiveness in its use of resources for the year between 1 April 2012 and 31 March 2013.”

Another report published today entitled Wirral Council – Review of Arrangements for Securing Financial Resilience gives more detail as to what Wirral Council’s auditors think needs to improve. Both reports will be discussed by Wirral Council councillors on 18th September at the Audit and Risk Management Committee.

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EXCLUSIVE: 36 More Pages of North West Regional Development Agency’s Contract With Wirral Council for Business Grants Program

Continuing from yesterdays’ blog post of the first ninety pages of the North West Development Agency’s contract with Wirral Council, here are the next thirty-five pages. As European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) money was involved, these are the standard conditions of the European Regional Development Fund grant.

EXCLUSIVE: 90 Pages of North West Regional Development Agency’s Contract With Wirral Council for Business Grants Program

The astute among you will no doubt be aware that the North West Regional Development Agency was abolished last year, however I would guess that in its absence that its functions under the contract are now done by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills.

There is more to the contract than the first ninety pages, although the other pages can wait for another day. The contract between the North West Regional Development Agency and Wirral Council was for business grants and has been the subject of recent whistle blowing concerns.

Page 1 (this is just a cover page with the North West Regional Development Agency’s contact details on)

Page 2 (this is the first page dated 17th September 2009 stating it’s a grant funding arrangement between Wirral Council and the North West Regional Development Agency for business start-up)

Page 3 (this is an index page to the contract detailing various sections and page numbers)

Page 4 (this is the second index page to the contract detailing various sections and annexes)

Page 5 (this is the first page of the contract which details who it’s between, what it’s for and starts with a list of definitions of terms)

Page 6 (this continues the list of definitions of various terms in the contract)

Page 7 (this continues the list of definitions of various terms in the contract)

Page 8 (this continues the list of definitions of various terms in the contract)

Page 9 (this continues the list of definitions of various terms in the contract)

Page 10 (this continues the list of definitions of various terms in the contract)

Page 11 (this continues the list of definitions of various terms in the contract)

Page 12 (this continues the list of definitions of various terms in the contract)