Issue - meetings

To consider the report of the Assistant Director Finance.

Corporate Services Scrutiny Committee considered the report at its meeting on 27 June 2016 and its comments will be reported.

The report of the Assistant Director Finance was submitted to update Members on the overall financial performance of the Council for the 2015/16 financial year, in respect of the annual capital programme and to seek approval of the 2016/17 revised capital programme, including commitments carried forward from 2015/16.

Members were advised that the capital expenditure amounted to £15,085,951, and the actual expenditure during 2015/16 represented 63.51% of the revised capital programme.  The sum of £8.923 million had been identified and would need to be carried forward to be spent in future years. The Assistant Director Finance also drew attention to a future funding request of £50,000 to purchase a new server and associated oracle licenses, which was a requirement to upgrade the financial system.  This cost of the server would be shared with the other local authority Strata partners at Teignbridge and East Devon District Councils.

The Assistant Director Finance brought Members’ attention to the schemes to be deferred to 2016/17 and beyond and that officers had been working to identify the details of a revised programme for schemes in 2016/17and this would be reported back to Members in the autumn.

Members raised concerns regarding the number of schemes that were to be deferred and noted that officers would be addressing this issue and reporting back to Members.

In response to a Member, the Assistant Director Public Realm clarified that the repair to the Canal Bank at the M5 had been delayed due to the requirement to find an engineering solution to the problem.

Corporate Services Scrutiny Committee considered the report at its meeting on 29 June 2016 and its comments were reported.

RECOMMENDED that Council notes and approves the:-

(1)        overall financial position for the 2015/16 annual capital programme; and

(2)        amendments and further funding request to the Council’s annual capital programme for 2016/17.

To consider the report of the Assistant Director Finance.

The Assistant Director Finance presented the report which updated Members of the overall financial performance of the Council’s capital programme for the 2015/16 financial year. The capital expenditure amounted to £15,085,951, and the actual expenditure during 2015/16 represented 63.51% of the revised capital programme.  The sum of £8.923 million had been identified and would need to be carried forward to be spent in future years.  The report also set out the expenditure variances that had arisen since December 2015 and schemes to be deferred to 2016/17 and beyond.  Officers had been working to identify the details of a revised programme for schemes in 2016/17 and report back the detail to Members as part of the Revised Capital Programme report to this Scrutiny Committee in September.

The Assistant Director Finance also drew attention to a future funding request to purchase a new server and associated oracle licenses, required to upgrade the financial system.  The estimated maximum cost to Exeter City Council would be £50,000, and some of the additional costs in excess of this would be provided by the other local authority Strata partners at Teignbridge and East Devon District Councils.  He responded to a Member’s comment about the likelihood of this request being repeated or whether the original procurement process had not been sufficiently thorough, stating that the cost of the additional licence was an unavoidable requirement as part of a system upgrade. 

Corporate Services Scrutiny Committee noted the report and recommended Executive and Council approve the following:-

(1)     overall financial position for the 2015/16 annual capital programme; and

(2)     amendments and further funding requests to the Council’s annual capital programme for 2016/17.