Agenda and minutes

Item 7 – Asset Management Strategy: County Councillor Easson declared a non-prejudicial interest as a member of Caldicot Town Council which has an office suite in the Castlegate Business Park.

Items5/6 – Statement of Accounts – charitable trust funds (Monmouthshire Farm School Endowment Trust Fund): Lay Member Martin Veale declared a non-prejudicial interest as a governor at Coleg Gwent, the legal entity responsible for Usk Agricultural College.

Governance and Audit Committee Public Open Forum Guidance

Our Governance and Audit Committee meetings are live streamed and a link to the live stream will be available on the meeting page of the Monmouthshire County Council website

If you would like to share your thoughts on any matters being discussed by Governance and Audit Committee, you may attend the meeting in person (or join remotely via Microsoft Teams), or submit written representations (via Microsoft Word, maximum of 500 words).

The deadline for submitting representations to the Council is 5pm three clear working days in advance of the meeting.  All representations received will be made available to the committee members prior to the meeting.

The amount of time afforded to each member of the public to speak is at the Committee Chair’s discretion.  We ask that contributions are no longer than 4 minutes.

If you would like to attend one of our meetings to speak under the Public Open Forum at the meeting, you will need to give three working days’ notice by contacting GACRegistertoSpeak@monmouthshire.gov

If you would like to suggest future topics for consideration by Governance and Audit Committee, please do so by emailing GACRegistertoSpeak@monmouthshire.gov.uk

None.

https://www.youtube.com/live/31MMsls9pPU?si=-naiXSeHb9ppgRI0&t=74

1.     Finance Team capacity: OPEN

2.     a) People Strategy: OPEN

b) Asset Management Strategy: CLOSED

(County Councillor Tony Easson from 14.07)

3.     Whole Authority Complaints Report: OPEN

4.     Freedom of Information, Data Protection and Data Subject Access Requests:

a)     Policy Governance Arrangements FOI, DP and DSAR: CLOSED

b)     Corporate risk control policies: OPEN

5.     Counter Fraud, Corruption and Bribery Policy:  CLOSED

6.     RIPA (Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000): CLOSED

The Head of Finance presented the Statement of Accounts for the Charitable Trust Funds, and the Audit Wales Financial Audit Manager presented the ISA260.  In doing so, the work and co-operation of the Finance Team and Audit Wales officers was recognised.  Following presentation of the reports, questions were invited from Committee Members:

https://www.youtube.com/live/31MMsls9pPU?si=qmFsgzfwGqnixBnt&t=406

The recommendations were agreed, and the Committee agreed the Chair should sign the Letter of Representation:

1.1           That the audited 2022/23 statement of accounts for The Welsh Church Act Fund (Appendix 1) are approved in conjunction with the Audit Wales ISA260 Audit of Accounts report for The Welsh Church Act Fund.

1.2           That the independently examined financial statements for The Monmouthshire Farm School Endowment Trust Fund for 2022/23 (Appendix 2) are approved in conjunction with the Independent Examination Report for The Monmouthshire Farm School Endowment Trust Fund.

ACTION: Questioning the effectiveness of the Welsh Church Fund, a Committee Member requested information on the proportion of grants paid from the fund for the relief of poverty. The Head of Finance will circulate a response outside the meeting.

This item was considered at the same time as the previous item.

The Development Manager, Estates & Sustainability presented the Asset Management Strategy.  Following presentation of the report, questions were invited from Committee Members:

https://www.youtube.com/live/31MMsls9pPU?si=OTTUE0vKONuKw92U&t=925

As per the recommendations in the report, the Governance and Audit Committee

1.         conducted pre-decision scrutiny of the Asset Management Strategy and associated policies: and

2.         recommended approval of the Asset Management Strategy to Full Council.

The Forward Work Plan was noted.

https://www.youtube.com/live/31MMsls9pPU?si=CTrQwRu0MfEHkkKh&t=2746

The minutes of the previous meeting were approved as accurate record.

https://www.youtube.com/live/31MMsls9pPU?si=CTrQwRu0MfEHkkKh&t=2746

The Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Officer Resources presented the Annual Performance Review of the Investment Committee.  Following presentation of the report, questions were invited from Committee Members.

https://www.youtube.com/live/31MMsls9pPU?si=yPTyO4HDLWcrb8x9&t=2948

As per the report recommendations, the Committee:

1.     received a verbal update at the meeting following consideration of the proposed governance changes to the Investment Committee at its meeting on 9^th January 2024.

2.     considered and scrutinised the proposed, revised governance arrangements contained in the revised Asset Investment Policy (appendix 1) and summarized in section 4 of this report, and endorsed such changes being proposed to Council at its meeting on 18^th January 2024.

3.     received a performance update on the Council’s commercial property and investment portfolio, subsequent to update considered by the Investment Committee on 28^th November 2023.