Agenda item

Quarter 4 Corporate Finance and Performance 2011/12

Minutes:

Cllr Daniel Thomas, the Cabinet Member for Resources and Performances, John Hooton, the Assistant Director for Strategic Finance, and Tom Pike, Head of Performance, presented a report detailing Quarter Four Corporate Performance and Finance. Craig Cooper, the Director of Commercial services, and Pam Wharfe, Interim Director of Environment, Planning and Regeneration were also present to answer questions.

 

Cllr Schneiderman was provided with written responses to questions submitted in advance of the meeting (These are set out below).

 

Cllr Moore was provided with verbal responses to questions submitted in advance with outstanding responses in relation to Children’s services, Commercial Services and Health Scrutiny to be provided in due course.

 

The Committee sought reassurance in relation to Corporate Risk – ORG0002 – Financial – and the possibility of future cuts to local government funding. In response John Hooton assured the Committee that the contracting model adopted by the council would incorporate appropriate levels of flexibility with price models based on numbers of uses and thus designed to reduce over time.

 

Cllr Moore sought further clarification in relation to paragraph 9.3.2 Emerging or Escalating Challenges and homelessness acceptances. In response Pam Wharfe advised that the required information would be made available to Cllr Moore.

 

Cllr Moore raised the issue of Corporate Risk ORG0011 – Compliance/Strategic – waste Management and Sustainability. The Committee noted that the situation would be clearer following the meeting of the NLWA that was due to take place on Friday 22 June.

 

In relation to ORG0019 – Financial – Street Lighting PFI Contract the committee were advised that agreement had now been gained with all parties

including Banks to proceed with the Energy Savings programme and this would have a positive impact on the sustainability of the contract.

 

In response to Cllr Schneiderman’s question on parking charges Pam Wharfe advised the Council were currently reviewing parking charges across the borough. Pam Wharfe advised the Committee that parking income had increased and that this increased revenue was being used to fund Council expenditure across areas such as infrastructure and the Freedom Pass.

 

RESOLVED that –

 

The Committee note the Quarter 4 Corporate Performance and Finance report.

 

 

 

 


QUESTIONS FOR BUDGET AND PERFORMANCE OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE, 19 JUNE 2012

 

PERFORMANCE REPORT, QUARTER FOUR, 2011-12

 

CORPORATE RISKS

 

Risk number

Question

Cabinet Member

Allocated to

Response

ORG0006 – Procurement: failure to deliver value for money, uncommercial contracts, (report page 121)

a) What is the current risk rating for procurement now that we are only two weeks away from the end of 2012-13 Q1?

 

 

 

b)  Is all procurement now in line with European and domestic law?

 

Cllr Thomas

Craig Cooper/ Lesley Meeks

a) An Internal Audit was carried out in April 2012 and there were six recommendations.  The overall finding was reported as Amber.  Recommendations have been acted upon and in a number of cases have been completed. We are on track to complete all actions within the agreed timescales, which is end July 2012.

 

b) We can confirm that procurement is conducted in line with European and domestic law. Systems and tools are in place and all council staff who work on contract management have completed contract compliance training.

 

ORG0019 – Street lighting PFI contract, (page 123)

What is the current status of this risk, work was due to be completed by the end of May 2012? (Street lighting)

 

Cllr Cohen

Pam Wharfe

Verbal update to be provided by Pam Wharfe.

ORG0001 – Transformation, (page 124)

Is it really feasible to have the target impact as ‘minor’ - how can this be achieved? (One Barnet)

 

Cllr Thomas

Ed Gowan/ James Wills-Fleming

Through robust governance and commercial negotiation coupled with a strong focus on the benefits that the transformation programme will bring we believe that the potential impact of this risk can be brought down to a ‘minor’ rating.

 

 

 

ORG0002, - finance, (page 125)

Given the risk of future cuts to local government funding, how can savings be made in the context of long-term One Barnet outsourcing?

 

Cllr Thomas

John Hooton

The One Barnet programme is, in part, responding to the context of future cuts to local government funding. A range of projects are delivering savings not just from outsourcing, but from shared services, and the creation of a wholly owned subsidiary company. This programme ensures that the Council has a long term plan to deal with cuts in local government funding. Contractual arrangements are being developed to include sufficient flexibility to respond to future changes in service requirements or funding availability.

 

ORG0014 -finance,  (page 125)

Is this still a risk, has the Council lost any money as a result of the implementation of the new revenues and benefits systems?

 

Cllr Thomas

Bill Murphy

There is always a risk of financial loss due to systems issues but it does need updating so it does not focus specifically on the upgrade. There are still outstanding issues within revenues that need resolving resulting from the upgrade.

 

 

 

2011/12 REVENUE OUTTURN POSITION

 

Page number

Question

Cabinet Member

Allocated to

Response

Parking, (page 137)

The shortfall in car park income is attributed to the economic climate, what has been the impact of increased charges?

 

Cllr Cohen

Pam Wharfe/ Declan Hoare

Verbal update to be provided by Pam Wharf

 

 

 

CORPORATE PLAN PERFORMANCE INDICATORS FOR QUARTER 4

 

Environment, Planning & Regeneration

 

Page number

Question

Cabinet Member

Allocated to

Response

CPI 4006, potholes,  (page 164)

What is an intervention level pot hole?

 

Cllr Cohen

Pam Wharfe/ Declan Hoare

The intervention level that LB Barnet work to and is nationally agreed level is an intervention depth of 40mm , however if the pothole is in an area such as on a controlled pedestrian crossing, zebra pedestrian crossing or an uncontrolled area that is a commonly used by pedestrian as a crossing point the intervention criteria used by LB Barnet is 25mm.

 

Commercial Services

 

Page number

Question

Cabinet Member

Allocated to

Response

CPI 7004, Vendors under formal contract, (page 165)

What size can a vendor be and not be under a formal contract?

Cllr Thomas

Craig Cooper/ Lesley Meeks

Contracts are not awarded based on the size of vendors. The Council applies good business practice which prevents suppliers being awarded a contract that is considered too large based on their size of business.  ie  turnover should be at least 4 times the annual value of the contract.

 

CPI 7004, Vendors under formal contract, (page 165)

Does the outturn figure include contracts where rules were waived under delegated powers? 

 

Which contracts have been awarded that were not in accordance with Contract Procedure Rules and when were they awarded?

Cllr Thomas

Craig Cooper/ Lesley Meeks

From the lists of the top 50 vendors there are 7 occurrences where Contract Waivers have been sought. 

 

All new contracts are subject to formal processes. The use of waivers is described in the councils contract procedure rules and are formally approved by the Council Resource Committee.  Previous reporting against this CPI was below 100% as the Corporate Procurement team could not demonstrate compliance as we needed to establish the documentation was in place out in the directorates.  This has now been established and we can confirm that the top 50 vendors were all awarded contracts in accordance with contract procedure rules.

 

 

Chief Executive’s Service

 

Page number

Question

Cabinet Member

Allocated to

Response

CPI 3002, Telephone calls to the council, (page 166)

What is being done to improve the speed at which telephone calls are answered and when will the target be reached?

 

Cllr Rams

Bill Murphy

There has been a steady improvement during the year. There is an ongoing programme of coaching and training. We are please to say the telephony upgrade has now been completed so we have better data to support an improvement programme. This target will be challenging until such time as we have the technology platform required and a fully multi-skilled work force. This will be post-outsourcing.

CPI 3004, Satisfaction with customer interactions with the council, (page 166)

What are the individual satisfaction figures for web, email, face to face and telephone interactions?

 

Cllr Rams

Bill Murphy

We don’t yet measure e-mail and web satisfaction. We are introducing new collection methods for the latter part of the year.  Phone is 91% but face to face is 62.1% but only 52% for Barnet House.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Corporate Governance

 

Page number

Question

Cabinet Member

Allocated to

Response

CPI 8002, FOI, (page 169)

Why is the response time to Freedom of Information requests getting worse?

 

TBC

Aysen Giritli

Due to the implementation of the new iCasework (new information management/case monitoring system) coupled with the continuing increase in FOI requests, Q4 showed a slight downturn in performance. Since the implementation of iCasework key staff have been trained and the function for recording and reporting requests will improve processes and allow for an analysis of data to ensure that performance improves in 2012/13.

 

 

 

Supporting documents: