Agenda item

The Finance Manager presented the draft accounts.   Credit was paid to the efforts of the Finance Team, during difficult circumstances, for submitting the accounts to Audit Wales by the statutory deadline of 15 June 2020.  Thanks were officially recorded from the Committee and Chief Officer for Resources.  The audited statement of accounts will return to this Committee at the September meeting to consider recommendation to Council and publication by the statutory publication date of 15^th September 2020. The content of the statement is highly regulated by legislation.  Following presentation, questions were asked by Members , as follows:

In response to a question, it was confirmed that Select Committees do not consider the statement of accounts; Audit Committee completes scrutiny.  Outturn reports are presented to Select Committees.

County Councillor A. Easson declared a personal, non-prejudicial interest in the following matter as a Governor of Ysgol Gymraeg Y Ffin and Dewstow Primary School. 

Regarding School deficits, Cabinet has received a detailed report of those schools with deficit budgets, and those moving out of deficit.  Schools are required to agree that they the deficit will be removed within three years.  Extensions to this timeframe are permitted only with the agreement of the authority.  Interest free loans are also available to schools to aid recovery from deficit.  A Member questioned the principle of allowing schools to borrow funds to recover from a deficit position, and was concerned that the cost of loans could rise to a point that schools would be unable to repay the loan. It was responded that schools can access interest free loans with a repayment period of ten years.  The basis being that the funds can assist restructuring.  Officers would work with schools to provide advice on financial planning 

In respect of debtors, it was explained that there has been a slight reduction in debtors since the previous year.  The authority’s Finance Team uses a process to actively recover debt.  Allowance has been made to take into account the impact of COVID 19 on council tax arrears.  Provision for bad/unrecoverable debt is contained in the statements of accounts.

With regard to redundancies, it was explained that these have been mainly due to the restructuring of services so it is difficult to predict if redundancies have reached a peak.

A Member pointed out that the Council’s administrative centre is at The Rhadyr, not Usk and asked that this is amended.  The Member also queried why the revised budget and not the original budget is included to enable comparison and to review performance.  It was agreed to take this into account.

Responding to a question about the Cardiff Capital Region (CCR), the Chief Officer for Resources provided detail that the CCR investment fund has made one significant investment for compound semiconductor sector (IQE PLC).  CCR is actively establishing a number of funds that require business cases and expenditure for due diligence.  It is anticipated there will be significant investment during 2020/21.  A Members’ Seminar is arranged for the Leader, Chief Executive and Chief Officer for Enterprise to provide a wider update on the activity of the CCR. 

In response to a question, it was responded that the authority sets borrowing limits as part of its treasury strategy at the beginning of each year. To exceed the borrowing limit would require the approval of Council.  Borrowing during 2019/20 was below the limit set.

As per the recommendations in the report, the draft Monmouthshire County Council Statement of Accounts for 2019/20, as presented for audit, was reviewed.