To consider the report, where a recommendation has been made by Cabinet. The recommendation is for the Committee to review the suggested improvements to process, as identified in the report.

Emma Duncan explained that the report had been considered by Cabinet earlier in the year. The report was regarding an amendment to the waste contract, with the mitigation actions being considered by the Committee for review. The authorisation for the amendment to the waste contract had been made by an officer, this was over £500,000 and was above the threshold for delegated decision making and the decision should have therefore been made by Cabinet. As a result, the decision had been referred back to Cabinet to make the decision. The issue should have been picked up earlier by officers and the Chief Executive had apologised to Cabinet at the meeting. Mitigation methods had been considered to ensure that this did not happen again. The internal audit plan showed that audits would be completed on procurement compliance, along with delegated decision making. Some work had been done on procurement in last year’s Annual Government Statement and the accompanying action plan.

The steps that had been taken by officers to avoid this happening again were:

·         Contract Standing Orders had been revised to emphasise key decision limits.

·         The decision-making guidance covering key decision thresholds and delegated decisions had been reissued and would be discussed at Corporate Leadership Team.

·         A decision tracker had been implemented for papers submitted to Cabinet, so that there was clarity around if decisions were required and the constraints around the decision-making process.

·         Procurement already existed as an area for action within the Annual Governance Statement with a Procurement Toolkit and training planned and the reissued decision-making guidance would be promoted as part of this process.

Emma Duncan was confident that the mitigation put in place would ensure that the chance of a mistake like this happening again was reduced. The audits planned from SWAP would supplement training and advice given to officers. It was important to have a culture of good governance and transparency, this was an improvement of processes.

Councillor Sharpe said that it was good to see the report come to the Committee. The report showed that the council could put in place a process to prevent this from happening again.

Councillor L Jones said that she had two questions from a resident and one question of her own. The resident had asked for further detail on how this had come to light, particularly as initial concerns appear to have been rebuffed. The resident also requested to know if other contracts had also been reviewed recently as a result. Councillor L Jones asked what the threshold was for a delegated decision to be published as an officer decision notice.

Emma Duncan confirmed that Councillor L Jones had initially queried the amendment to the waste contract as potentially being an issue. She felt that rebuffed was harsh but there would be a discussion on any concerns that were raised by Members or officers. On officer decision notices, it was up to the council at what level decisions were published as the guidance was not clear. Emma Duncan had been in discussion with the Statutory Officers Group to determine what the level should be. It was currently left to officers to publish officer decision notices that they felt were appropriate in the public interest. Emma Duncan said that she would like to see more delegated decisions published going forward. RBWM had not conducted a detailed analysis of the contracts that had been entered in to. There would be work done to ensure that if contracts were changed or amended that the processes were correct. There had been a reduction in the number of waivers used and there was a managed process of oversight on procurement. The procurement message needed to be consistent across the authority.

Councillor Bond noted that this issue first arose in February 2021 and November 2021, he asked if work would be done to improve the timescales so that an informed decision could be made. He asked if procurement included contract amendments.

Emma Duncan responded by saying that there were broad project plans now in place for major procurements so the risk of this happening again was greatly reduced. Things could change over the course of a long contract. Variations of contracts occurred as part of the procurement process, amendments needed to comply with the regulations on public procurement. Waivers were put in place if required in order to meet service needs if a contract was near to ending. The Procurement Manager produced a report on procurement issues every quarter for the Statutory Officers Group and was also considered as part of the Monitoring Officer annual report.

Councillor Bhangra asked when the issue was discovered and how long it was before action was taken.

Emma Duncan confirmed that it was brought to her attention just before Christmas, work was then done to consider how the decision had been made. A section 5 report was then produced in collaboration with the Chief Executive and the Executive Director of Resources, the report was brought to the next Cabinet meeting after this had been completed.

Councillor L Jones asked for a comment to be made to Cabinet, that officer decision notices needed to be put on a more formal footing, particularly those with a financial aspect. Decisions over a certain amount needed to be published in the public domain.

Emma Duncan suggested that this could be something for the Constitution Working Group to consider, Councillor L Jones was a member of this group. The group could then consider if it wanted to make any changes to the constitution, which it would recommend for adoption by Full Council.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the Audit & Governance Committee:

i)             Reviewed the suggested improvements to process which had been identified in the report.

ii)            Recommended that the Constitution Working Group reviewed how officer decision notices were published, particularly the threshold at which decisions that had a financial impact were published.