Camden Councils Audit and Corporate Governance Committee

Camden councils Audit and Corporate Governance (ACG) committee HERE  grew out of the Audit committee HERE which was set up in March 2006 HERE

 

The Audit committee grew out of the then General Purposes(GP) committee. 

The GP committee goes back to Sept 2001 HERE - the first Terms of Reference (remit) of the committee put up on the councils website dates to July 2003 HERE

Currently 20 cllrs are on the AGC committee HERE
AGC Terms of Reference  HERE  

In 2004 HERE  the then General Purposes committee did a 'review' of the councils Financial Standing Orders (FSO's) Minutes HERE. FSO's are regulations that govern the management of the councils finances. There was also a 'review' of the council Contract Standing Orders HERE. No evidence from any one except council officers.

There doesn't appear to be been any deputations or evidence gathering in relation to the Financial Regulations other than from officers - report HERE

Financial standing orders are part of the councils Constitution - currently PART 4 Procedure Rules and Standing Orders HERE  

The General Purposes committee doesn't appear to have ever received deputations or evidence from members of the public.

GPs committee review (Feb 2006) of the need for a separate audit committee HERE which brought about the setting up of the Audit committee which held its first meeting on 29 March 2006 HERE

The newly set up Audit committee set about looking at work of the councils internal audit team - report  HERE. 

an extract from the report about why an internal audit service is needed:

• Section 151 of the Local Government Act 1972 requires every local authority to ‘make arrangements for the proper administration of their financial affairs’.
• The Accounts and Audit Regulations 2003 requires the ‘relevant body to ensure that an adequate and effective system of Internal Audit is maintained’.

The Audit committee received quarterly reports on the work of the councils internal audit team who seem to have a lot of work to do. 

The Audit and Corporate Governance committees first meeting was 25 March 2009 HERE

DMC's Review - History of the DMC's

An officers report to the councils Housing and Adult Social Care in regards to the review the committee is carrying out into the 5 Committee District Management Committee's (DMC's) HERE


History of the DMC's

Back in the days prior to part 2 of the Local Government Act 2000 HERE coming into force in July 2001, the dmc's where sub-committee's of the councils then Housing committee. 

The housing committee and its sub-committees had council tenants as members - legislation allows them to do this.

In 1998, a DMC document HERE reveals that cllrs on the Housing committee bestowed upon some council tenants rights they weren't legally entitled to: voting rights on the councils housing committees (the dmc's).

" RESOLVED 

THAT the Tenants' Associations listed in Appendix A be  formally registered with the Council and their nominated representatives be co-opted onto the DMC, with voting rights for the Municipal Year 1998/99"   HERE

Legislation

The Local Government Act 1972, states under section 101 HERE   in regards to local governments discharge of their functions:

Subject to any express provision contained in this Act or any Act passed after this Act, a local authority may arrange for the discharge of any of their functions—
 
(a) by a committee, a sub-committee or an officer of the authority; or
(b) by any other local authority.

In relation to committees section 102 says:

(1) (a)a local authority may appoint a committee of the authority; or
(b)two or more local authorities may appoint a joint committee of those authorities; or
(c)any such committee may appoint one or more sub-committees

 (3)A committee appointed under subsection (1) [F25or (1A)] above, other than a committee for regulating and controlling the finance of the local authority or of their area, may, subject to section 104 below, include persons who are not members of the appointing authority or authorities or, in the case of a sub-committee, the authority or authorities of whom they are a sub-committee, F26. .

Section 13 HERE of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989  adds further to the above:

13 Voting rights of members of certain committees: England and Wales.
(1)Subject to the following provisions of this section, a person who—
(a)is a member of a committee appointed under a power to which this section applies by a relevant authority and is not a member of that authority;
(c)is a member of a sub-committee appointed under such a power by such a committee as is mentioned in paragraph (a) or (b) above and is not a member of the relevant authority, or one of the relevant authorities, which appointed that committee,
shall for all purposes be treated as a non-voting member of that committee (my emphasis),  joint committee or, as the case may be, sub-committee.

Section 13 above came into force more or less around August 1990 HERE

By June of 1999 all 5 cllr lead dmc's (the 5 dmc's were aligned with the councils 5 district housing offices) had council tenant reps as chairs or vice chairs.

Each dmc was also given £100,000 pa to allocate on  council housing capital works. This was on top of the existing but smaller revenue budgets (around £35,000 each pa ) dmc's had been allocating.

Council meeting of 17 May 2000 
agenda item  6. STATUTORY REQUIREMENTS GOVERNING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF COMMITTEES AND THE APPOINTMENT OF MEMBERS TO COMMITTEES 

 The Mayor moved and Councillor Dermot Greene seconded, that the report be received and adopted.
RESOLVED
- THAT the standing committees of the Council be constituted as set out below (my emphasis)

(e) HOUSING COMMITTEE (16) 
Majority Party (11) 
Brian Weekes, Dave Horan, John Rolfe, Charlie Hedges, Heather Johnson, Roger Robinson, Sybil Shine, Anne Swain, Jim Turner Maggie Cosin and Penny Abraham.

Opposition
(C)(3)Peter Horne, Andrew Mennear Piers Wauchope
(LD) (2) Jane Schopflin, Sidney Malin 
Plus named substitute 
(C)(1) Stephen Hocking 
(LD) (2) Flick Rea, Heather Thompson  

Plus 10 non voting members (my emphasis), one from each DMC, one from the Camden Federation of Tenants Associations, one from the Camden Federation of Private Tenants and one from the Homelessness Liaison Group, one from Leaseholders forum and one from TMO Liaison Group

Note it says "Plus 10 non voting members "

Forward a couple of weeks from the above full Council meeting to the Gospel Oak DMC  30 May 2000 HERE 

 1.REGISTRATION OF TENANTS ASSOCIATION AND CO-OPTION OF TENANT REPRESENTATIVES 
RESOLVED THAT all the Tenants Associations listed in Appendix A be formally registered with the Council and their nominated representatives be co-opted onto the DMC with voting rights (my emphasis) for the municipal year 2000/2001. 

Within weeks of the full Council meeting and the agreed 10 tenant reps appointed onto the councils then Housing Committee with no voting rights, had  transformed into the continuation of 5 Housing Committee sub-committees that had at least ten voting tenant reps each.

It was around this time that council tenant reps from the Camden Association of Street Properties (CASP) started attending dmc meetings.

By 2004 a few estate based council tenants reps (dmc and cftra members) had taken over CASP.

The council had given them housing transfers to street properties in order to do so.

A few years earlier, in January 2001, council tenant members of the dmc's who where also members of the Camden Federation of Tenants and Residents Association (CFTRA) managed to get the following motion agreed by 4 of the 5 dmc's:

“This District Management Committee agrees that the budget of £456,000 be withdrawn from the Community Involvement Team from April 1st 2001 and that tenants decide where and how the money will be used" 

The CFTRA then set themselves up as a private company limited by guarantee in the same name, and took on the tenant participation service from the councils in house team - to provide services to other council tenants on behalf of the council.

From what I can make of things, the cftra taking on the TP service has been a disaster from start to finish resulting in the current situation where the cftra has lost all its funding and support from the council.

The change of governance system brought in by the Local Government Act 2000 should have meant that the dmc's where shut down but cllrs allowed the dmc's to continue but as council tenant groups funded and serviced by the council.

The dmc's also continued to exercise council functions of allocating large sums of money to themselves. This progressed to dmc members actually being given direct access to council money to buy goods and services/works on behalf of the council - without an apparent formal legal management agreement/contract being in place. No annual accounts of spending required by the councils. No receipts required.

Councils officers agree with the tenant reps how much the cost of the works etc will be and the tenant rep is sent a cheque (or given a government procurement card) to transfer public money into the tra's bank account.

The dmc's don't produce annual accounts of where the money they have allocated to themselves has been spent. The council doesn't require the dmc's to account for the spending.

This set up continues to this day.

Housing Management Efficiencies Review

On 26 June 2013 the councils housing and adult social care (hasc) scrutiny committee held their first (of a limited number of sub- meetings) Housing Management Efficiencies review meeting HERE

Terms of reference 

• Investigate current Housing management structures and consider proposals to address any deficiencies

• Investigate the role and responsibility for each head of service in Housing Management, how they relate to each other and to other council departments, how they work together and share resources, and how they use the budgets allocated to each

• Investigate efficiency saving opportunities without affecting front line service delivery

• Make visits to appropriate departments and carry out mystery shopping within the above scope and investigation

• Consider the implications of the above findings and make recommendations to improve efficiency and service delivery for tenants and leaseholders.

Labour cllr Julian Fulbrook is the cabinet member for housing.

2nd meeting 16 July 2013 HERE 
3rd meeting 30 July 2013 HERE
4th meeting due 18 Sept 2013 HERE
5th meeting 1 Oct 2013 HERE
6th meeting 9 Oct 2013 HERE
7th meeting 24 Oct 2013 HERE
8th meeting 6 Nov 2013 HERE

One theme that keeps occurring in relation to council housing management (and it could be right across the council) is the continued operation of a financial system that allows any tom, dick or harridan to invoice the council for works/services without having to provide receipts.

Such as not requiring council housing repairs teams to provide proof of the works they have done ie get job signed off by tenant as proof it was carried out.

Or not requiring dmc members to provide proof of what they spend large sums of public money on.

I wonder if any improvements have been implemented since the 2002 Audit of Camden Council Leaseholder Service Charges HERE    was carried out? The report is very damning of how the council mis-manages money.