Finance Minutes 7th May 2024
Finance Committee minutes for 7th May 2024 (Zoom meeting)
Attendees: Phil March (Ch); Gill Wilkinson; Jonathan Hughes; David Court Apologies: Chris Burgess
Minutes of last meeting (8th April) - no comments received.
Action points from last meeting:
Public Sector Deposit Fund - see item 5 below
Replacement contractor for bench maintenance: see recommendation contained in Fixed Asset Review document 30/4/2024
April transactions and bank reconciliations
Review of April transactions: checked by JH;
1st Precept installment received, £8000 transferred to Money Manager a/c;
VAT reclaimed of £219.59. Discussed possibility of paying certain grants
Llais Llan and Church House as examples of why we are going to insist on timely invoices. See also ‘Full Audit’ comment below.
Audit Timetable
Internal Auditor has ‘signed off’ our Annual Return. All audit documents circulated to Council 22nd April. Need to be reviewed, approved and signed off by council by 30th June and submitted to Audit Wales before 5th July.
2023/24 is a ‘basic’ audit; 2024/25 will be a full ‘transactional’ audit.
We need to ensure that everything is properly invoiced and signed-off.
Need for an Investment Strategy
Draft document circulated to Council 6th May. Needs to be supported by a current year investment plan; for this we need to review the range of interest rates available to councils. Products like the PSDF will need to be properly explained.
Fixed Asset review/Council insurance policy
Report circulated 30/4/2024. Five benches identified for immediate work:
Fixed Asset valuation prepared for Audit, circulated to Council 17/4/2025 to aid consideration of how to amend the ‘specified items’ section of the Zurich policy. Cover of all items listed will cost us an additional premium of £180.48 for the current year to August 2024. Not allowed to deliberately ‘under- insure’: recommend that Council pay this then decide at the next renewal
No news re the missing marquee. I didn’t include it as part of our fixed assets, i.e. we have now written it off.
Financial Documentation
The following draft documents have been circulated to council: Financial Regulations (incl summary); see additional items re grants. Risk Assessment;
Investment Strategy; flexibility to look for higher yields. Councillor Allowances; Council needs to make some decisions.
Funding Request policy (we don’t need an ‘expert’ to review work done; just need to make sure that grantees comply with terms of grants)
Fixed Asset review
Any other business
Playground maintenance. We have still not agreed a budget for this - continue with agreed grant funding for cleaning and await news from Conwy Council.
Next meeting: Monday, the week before the next council meeting. Zoom works well but a physical meeting is preferred for producing the end-quarter reports.