| 102 | ELECTION OF CHAIRMAN |
| | | Councillor Hollands was elected as Chairman for the remainder of the municipal year. |
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| 103 | APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE |
| | | Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Jarrett. |
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| 104 | DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST |
| | | Councillor Griffiths declared a personal interest in any item concerning Danecourt School as his wife is an employee and in any reference to the Primary Care Trust (PCT) on the grounds that he is a non-executive director of Medway PCT. |
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| 105 | STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS AND STATEMENT OF INTERNAL CONTROL |
| | Discussion: |
| | The Director of Finance and Corporate Services gave a brief introduction to the Statement of Accounts and Statement of Internal Control. He stated that for the third consecutive year it was hoped that the budget would be balanced.
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| The Cabinet on 27 June 2006 approved the draft Statement of Accounts and Statement on Internal Control and recommended them to this Committee.
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| The following comments were put forward
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| | • | The break-even situation with the budget was welcomed although there was concern expressed about the reliance upon the favourable outturn for interest and financing.
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| | • | The point was made that an overall balanced position disguised significant impacts on service areas with overspending particularly given the size of the interest and financing underspend. These areas need to be addressed either by having a more realistic resource base or by means of improved budgetary control. In the discretionary areas the Council should not be consistently overspending. The leisure budget in particular was referred to in this regard and it was felt that more should be done at an earlier stage to avoid this becoming a regular occurrence.
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| | • | The suggestion was made that rather than relying on reserves to cover the costs of reorganisations there should be funding set aside for this purpose
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| | • | With regard to the Statement of Internal Control it was requested that this should be far more transparent so that members of the public could understand how the Council was spending money. Rather than just referring to specific total expenditure in each area of the Council's work it would be more helpful to break this down in more detail. For instance if officers estimated the numbers of people who were likely to need residential care and allocate a budget accordingly, it would then be possible to demonstrate why it had been necessary to spend more than budgeted for because the actual number requiring care was greater than anticipated. |
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| | > Cover report statement of accounts (pdf file 36.2kb) |
| | > Front Cover statement of accounts 2005-2006 (pdf file 7.7kb) |
| | > Main report Statement of Accounts 2005-2006 Draft (pdf file 270.1kb) |
| | > Statement on Internal Control amended document (pdf file 21.9kb) |
| | Decision: |
| | (a) | | The Statement on Internal Control, as amended, was approved for signature and inclusion in the Council's Statement of Accounts for the financial year 2005/2006. |
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| | (b) | | The draft Statement of Accounts was approved for 2005/2006. |
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| 106 | WORK PROGRAMME |
| | Discussion: |
| | | The Director of Finance and Corporate Services explained that it was necessary to bring forward the October 2006 meeting to 27 September 2006. The Chairman explained that he would need to check the revised date against his diary before it could be confirmed.
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| It was requested that an item be placed on the work programme in relation to the Council's Business Units and how their work is monitored. The Director of Finance and Corporate Services stated that this would be more appropriate to be added to the work programme for the Finance and Corporate Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee. |
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| | > Work programme (pdf file 10.0kb) |
| | Decision: |
| | | The work programme and associated dates set out in the report were agreed subject to the above change.
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