Agenda and minutes

Resolved:-   That the LGA Annual Capital Finance Conference to be held on 16^th November, 2010, be not attended.

Consideration was given to the minutes of the previous meeting held on 13^th September, 2010.

Resolved:-  That the minutes of the meeting held on 13^th September, 2010, be approved as a correct record.

- verbal update by Joe Johnson, Service Finance

Joe Johnson, Principal Accountant, gave a verbal update on the budget for 2010/11.

The 2010 budget for Financial Services had been £10.2M but that had changed due to the Government announcement in June of various cuts in grants.  The Comprehensive Spending Review was due on 20^th October, the implications of which would be worked on and the revised budget set for 2010/11. 

Mark Gannon, Transformation & Strategic Partnerships Manager, presented the submitted report which summarised RBT’s performance against contractual measures and key service delivery issues for August, 2010, across the areas of Customer Access, Human Resources and Payroll, ICT, Procurement and Revenues and Benefits.

Key points for this period included:-

Customer Access

-              All performance targets achieved

-              2 complaints received in August; 1 had not yet been resolved and the other closed not upheld

-              Continued work on the transformation of extending payment options with good progress made on identifying payment network providers.  Ongoing work between the Client and RBT to finalise funding arrangements

-              Workshop held with contractors Morrisons and Willmott Dixon and the 2010 Client to discuss issues around policy, priorities, contact centre processes and Key Performance Indicators

-              4^th October live date agreed for the recording of avoidable contact for all customer contact made via the Siebel CRM system

Human Resources and Payroll

-              All performance targets achieved

-              Preparation of a business case for the refresh of servers which support the PSE HR and Payroll system

-              Ongoing work to finalise the transfer arrangements of 2010 Ltd. employees moving to new service provision arrangements from October

-              Yourself Version 11 due for release in November, 2010

-              1 complaint received; closed as upheld

ICT

-              All performance targets achieved

-              RBT to produce a ‘Roadmap of Obsolescence’ explaining what investment would be required over the next 5 years allowing creation of a strategy for maintaining all the infrastructure at an appropriate level

-              Ongoing discussions with suppliers with regard to a new managed print service

-              Creation of the South Yorkshire Chief Information Officer Group

-              No complaints received

Procurement

-              All performance targets achieved with the exception of PO6 (catalogue orders) in June which achieved 16.38% against a target of 19%

-              Former BVP18 achieved 94.21%.  The current year to date position was 95.79%, an improvement on the same point during 2009/10 when performance achieved a year to date figure of 94.74%

Revenues and Benefits

-              Council Tax Collection Rate 46.46% at the end of August, 2010, 0.22% lower than the same point in 2009/10

-              The target for 2010/11 continued to be a Council Tax Collection Rate which placed Rotherham in the upper performance quartile for Metropolitan District Councils with a minimum collection level of 97.0% regardless of quartile position

-              There had been 1,818 Council Tax Liability Orders referred to the bailiff up to the end of July, 2 of which were classed as vulnerable cases

-              Average number of days taken to action a Council Tax Change of Circumstance was 10.75 days.  This was better than the performance level which the service aimed to achieve i.e. 14 days

-              NNDR collection rate was 49.66% at the end of August, 2010, 1.3% up on the same point in 2009/10. 

-              The NNDR collection figure had been adjusted to incorporate the affect of the NNDR Deferral Scheme.  The year end target remained a collection rate  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26.

- minutes of meeting held on 21^st June, 2010

Consideration was given and discussion took place on the minutes of the E-Government Board held on 21st June, 2010.

Resolved:-  That the contents of the minutes be noted.

Consideration was given to a report considered by the Audit Committee at its meeting on 29^th September, 2010 (Minute No. 20 refers), relating to the second ‘Annual Fraud Report’.

The document was a summary of the work which had taken place in the period to prevent and detect fraud and corruption.  By publicising the Annual Report, it was intended to demonstrate the Council’s commitment to minimising the risk of fraud and to act as a deterrent to would be fraudsters.

RBT, which administered the Housing Benefit Service on behalf of the Council, had recovered over £3.1M overpayments of benefits made as a result of fraud or error.  They had also obtained 34 prosecutions for cases of Housing and Council Tax Benefit Fraud.

Investigations of cases highlighted by the Audit Commission’s ‘National Fraud Initiative’, led by the Council’s Internal Audit Service, had identified savings in excess of £200,000.

Resolved:-  (1)  That the production of the ‘Annual Fraud Report’ be supported.

(2)  That appropriate publicity be produced to highlight the outcomes from the Council’s anti-fraud activity and to act as a deterrent to fraud.

(3)  That all the staff concerned be thanked for their work in this field.