Agenda item

With reference to article 4 of the minute of meeting of Council on 17 February 2025, the Committee had before it a report by the Executive Director of Corporate Services which provided an update on the implementation of the Accounts Commission recommendations, following consideration of the s102 report by the Council in February 2025.

The report recommended:-

That the Committee -

(a)      note the content of the report;

(b)      note that the Accounts Commission Findings had been progressed to conclusion; and

(c)      note that the Council Tax system and process priority actions were complete.

In response to a question relating to the means in which the funding was recovered, the Chief Officer – Finance advised that there was pension sacrifice following conviction, an insurance payment and additional funding was awarded via proceeds of crime.

In response to a question relating to whether additional support was given to victims, the Chief Officer – Finance advised that the Council was the victim of the crime and that there had been a number of people affected by this which officers were identifying and reimbursing them.

In response to a question relating to whether it was possible to cross reference employee bank accounts with the systems the Council had, the Chief Officer – Finance advised that to date, this had been a manual process and that the Council did have the capability to do this and that officers were working on an automated process.

In response to a question relating to whether the cloud-based bank validation tool and the NXG Forensics software were expensive and whether the Council were considering these, the Chief Officer - Finance advised that the systems were expensive and that the Council were looking at current suppliers to see how they were building this into their processes.

In response to a question relating to whether more could have been done, the Chief Officer - Finance advised that there had been various actions identified which had been implemented to improve the control processes.

In response to a question relating to Whistleblowing and whether this situation would be used to encourage staff , the Legal Manager advised that the policy had recently been reviewed and that staff had been advised.  The Chief Officer – Finance advised that the employee who reported the incident didn’t seek protection under the whistleblowing policy and that they had reported an anomaly to management for investigation. 

In response to a question relating to how progress with implementing the action plan would be reported, the Chief Officer – Finance advised that the Chief Internal Auditor will review the control processes as part of the Internal Audit Plan and report via that process.

In response to a question relating to the arrangements in place for reimbursing those affected by this incident, the Chief Finance Officer advised that there was a standard process being used for reimbursing those affected and that staff were working through the accounts.

In response to a question relating to whether similar circumstances had presented previously that employees were not confident to report, the Chief Officer – Finance advised that the employee who reported it was presented with a set of circumstances that they reported.  He further advised that the person who committed the offence did it in such a way as to not trigger any concerns.

The Committee resolved:-

to approve the recommendation as contained in the report.