Issue - meetings

To receive the report of the Strategic Director for Corporate Resources.

The Service Lead – Commercial and Procurement presented the report making the following points:

·         the external auditor had recommended that this report be brought to committee and this was the first;

·         the report showed waivers and breachesWaivrevi which had previously been reported in the bulletin;

·         a waiver request set out the rationale for a direct award to a supplier and why it may not be in the Council’s best interests to run a competitive procurement process as required within the Council’s Procurement and Contract Procedures; 

·         any waiver granted over the UK procurement threshold approves only the anticipated non-compliance with the Council’s Procedures. It did not mitigate the risks associated with non-compliance with the UK Procurement Law and Regulation;

·         a breach occurred where either the Council’s Procurement and Contract Procedures or UK procurement legislation has not been adhered to; and

·         the last two quarters were reported.

The Strategic Director for Corporate Resources and Service Lead – Commercial and Procurement responded to Members questions in the following terms:

·         the report did not relate to people overspending but rather to procedures and rules and had been moved from the bulletin to committee;

·         Breaches did not mean that there had been overspend but rather that rules or procedure had not been followed;

·         there was no direct correlation between breaches and budgetary control or overspend;

·         each accountant met regularly with Heads of Service and their Director at which time any issues would be highlighted;

·         under or overspend of a budget could happen for a number of reasons, some of which were understandable and others not but SMB reviewed this before it was brought to Council and highlighted areas of more concern than others;

·         it was important to highlight areas of concern as there would be variation throughout the year; and

·         it was a fair assessment to say that some waivers existed to facilitate effective service provision and this was not a bad thing as there was a need for expediency which was normal for local authorities.

The Audit and Governance Committee noted the Quarterly Waivers Report.