Agenda item

Report of the Town Clerk.

The Committee received a report of the Town Clerk which advised Members of the key discussions which had taken place during recent meetings of the Committee’s Sub-Committees.

Procurement Sub-Committee – 3^rd April 2019

The Deputy Chairman of the Sub-Committee informed Members of the following points:

City Procurement currently has no RED and four AMBER risks including:

CHB CP001 – Brexit risk to City Corporation procurement and supply chains

CHB CP005 – Impact on procurement resources

CHB CP004 – City accelerate delays and impact on income levels

CHB CP003 – VAT loss through use of Purchase Cards

On the fourth risk, City Procurement have long monitored VAT recovery as part of its duties administering purchase cards (P-cards). It is also part of each Chief Officer’s quarterly P-card report of which results are reported to Procurement Sub Committee. A recent update report showed an average of £64,000 worth of VAT being lost each quarter.

Despite the overall downward trend, a Member expressed concern that too many officers were still not taking their responsibilities seriously; £64,000 was a considerable amount of money and over the course of the year equated to the average price of a UK house.

Another Member proposed that he would table a question to the Department of Community and Children’s Services (DCCS) about the level of officer P-Card compliance at the next meeting of the CCS Committee and encouraged other Members to ask the lead departments at their respective grand Committees the same question over the coming weeks.

The Chairman of the Finance Committee reinforced the Deputy Chairman of Procurement’s call that Members would be foursquare behind City Procurement in their efforts to raise compliance and drive down losses. The Commercial Director responded that City Procurement would continue to take the institutional lead and encourage best practice, but ultimately it was down to line managers to take responsibility. There was no “silver bullet”, as withdrawing P-Cards entirely and asking Procurement to manage the process would necessitate a material uplift in extra staff to manage the administration involved.

Corporate Asset Sub-Committee – 4^th April 2019

The Chairman of the Sub-Committee informed Members of the following points:

It was noted that the award of the new lift and escalator contract was anticipated to be concluded shortly.

A Member raised concerns at recent access problems caused by new security fobs around the Guildhall complex.

It was noted that the first meeting of the local FM and Security Network had attracted a number of local businesses and that it was intended to expand the network.

Digital Services Sub-Committee – 5^th April 2019  

The Chairman of the Sub-Committee informed Members of the following point:

February saw the deployment of the Microsoft Teams platform across the City Corporation, this was now in use by over 600 staff. Adoption levels for SharePoint and Skype for Business continue to increase month on month. Work has started to upgrade the Audio Visual (AV) equipment and install Skype Room systems in the Chief Officer’s rooms, the Corporate meeting rooms and the Committee rooms.

The Chairman of the Finance Committee expressed his profound gratitude for the sterling work of Nick Bensted Smith and Simon Duckworth over the past several years. Mr Bensted Smith and Mr Duckworth will be standing down as Chairmen of the Corporate Asset Sub Committee and the Finance Grants Oversight and Performance Sub-Committee respectively later this month.

RESOLVED – That the Committee notes the report.