Agenda item

Report of the Chamberlain.

The Committee received a Report of the Chamberlain concerning the departmental business plan.

The Chamberlain briefly introduced the Report. Progress was good, with most key milestones met according to anticipated timescales.

Key achievements in 2018/19 include:

·         Development of the Medium-Term Financial Plan against the challenging backdrop of financing the major projects

·         Annual procurement savings secured totalling £6.74m.

·         95% completion of the IT Network Transformation.

The Chamberlain added that the department aimed to improve the Internal Audit Plan this year. The target for delivery for 2018/19 had been almost achieved (92% against a target of 96%), despite earlier challenges and delivery consistently below the target profile for much of the year. In response, the Chamberlain informed Members that a new Head of Audit & Risk Management would be in place from the summer, the benefits of IT investment in this area was beginning to bear fruit, and a initiative had been put in place to ensure faster “closing” meetings and actions. The Chamberlain was confident that the department would achieve better outcomes by the end of 2019/20.

The Deputy Chairman asked officers to ensure that Capital Budgets was added to the Key Departmental Scorecard.

The Chamberlain confirmed that the department did not undertake its own staff survey in 2018/19 in light of the Corporate Staff Engagement survey.

Members asked the Commercial Director to ensure that all procurement savings and costs are included in Reports going forward. Whilst the savings over the course of 2018/19 were commendable it was important that Members also had sight of where costs had increased (e.g. the street cleansing contract)

RESOLVED – that the Committee noted the Report.