Control area Issue
Payment authorisation
It is a clear requirement of the law that every cheque or other payment order is signed by two members. This does not include signing invoices, but does include initialing the stubs of cheques – hence they are left in the book for signature now – and the list of electronic payments.
Risk assessment
The current risk assessment of the council does not reflect changes in staffing and procedures.
Bank balances The balances held at the bank are not being routinely minuted by the council. It is both good practice to do so and ensures that members are aware of where reserves are held and that they are properly accounted for.
Bank reconciliation
Recommended Action
The officers and members should ensure that all payments have been correctly authorised during the appropriate agenda item at meetings.
Once the officer team is fully recruited, the document should be reviewed and approved.
The minute template for every Parish
Council meeting should be updated to include the balance of every bank account each month.
There is no evidence that members A member who is not a bank signatory are reviewing and approving the bank reconciliation on a regular should confirm that the bank reconciliation is correct each month. basis. Good practice would be for a member of the council to initial the bank reconciliation back to the original statement on a monthly basis.
Council Comments

Bank current account
Deferred minute approval
There is a persistent problem of the minutes of previous meetings being deferred rather than approved. Until the minutes have been approved, the decisions therein have not been adopted, so
Staffing hindering the smooth functioning of the councils activities.
There has been a problem with staff management and retention at the council. The excellent report from Chris Rolley Associates this spring clearly identified needed changes in working practices.
Budget monitoring
The vast bulk of the reserves and working funds of the Council are held in the current account earning little interest. The council should actively consider using fixed term deposits with its bank – which could be managed by the RFO under existing delegated powers – to maximise income on funds.
It is not apparent that the council is reviewing spending against budgets on a regular basis and ensuring that all virements are recorded.
This is especially important as budget season is coming round again.
The councils current bankers provide term deposit accounts paying above base rate. Reducing the monies in the current account would be good practice.
With draft minutes being circulated by email, there should be no reason for the contents of the previous minutes not to be ready to approve every meeting.
The Rolley report should be implemented in full and monitored regularly to allow the council to achieve its potential for electors.
Reports produced by the accounts system should be presented reviewed at each meeting and budget virements approved by full council.

Fixed asset register
Petty cash
Working parties and subcommittees
Tenancies
There seems to be some confusion about the purpose and content of the fixed asset register. The proforma provided by the external
The existing asset register – with some amalgamation of low value items is a perfectly good starting document – all auditors is very clear. It is not an inventory (although such things are that is needed is a better estimate of the age of most items so that replacement schedules can be ascertained. useful in some circumstances). It does not record depreciation or impairment. It should not be matched to the insurance schedule.
The petty cash tin should be counted by a member each time it is replenished.
It does not appear that members have reviewed the petty cash during the year. Also, mileage claims by officers are not being countersigned by a member (and vice versa) – which increases accountability
Horndean parish council has more working parties that is good practice in ensuring open and democratic operation. The working parties are of varying size, do not seem to have either clear objectives or reporting dates.
Now that the Financial Regulations and
Standing Orders have been reviewed, a simplified meeting structure should develop.
The council has several tenancies but it is not clear what the remaining terms on each of them is
– both Council as Landlord and budget setting. council as tenant.
It would be good practice to carry out a review of such agreements prior to

Budget Within the accounting system, wages are a cost centre. This does not aid transparency as the full costs of running the open spaces are not reflected in its budget.
Agenda papers It appears that all agenda papers are published prior to meetings, even those that may not be adopted by the council. Only the agenda needs to be available to the public before meetings, and it will assist in the smooth running of the council if only adopted documents are published on the website
Staff training The council is lucky to have staff
Confidential minutes who are already qualified, but this does not negate the need for them to stay up to date with changes in legislation
The council is using confidential minutes more than is recommended by good practice.
Quotes and contracts should be discussed in open meetings, with only the suppliers names replaced by letters.
The cost centres associated with each of the 2*** codes should be amended to reflect their operational links.
The council should ensure that it is publishing only those documents that have been approved and adopted by the members.
A programme of training should be reviewed so that all staff are up to date .
The council should ensure that confidential minutes are used as little as possible, to aid democracy.

Financial
Regulations
The Financial regulations as adopted appear to still contain onerous demands upon members and officers, particularly with regard to contracts. The effectiveness of the regulations should be under constant review.
The regulations should be reviewed annually, a process that usually takes only an hour once the council is working well.
Meeting dates In the schedule of meeting dates there are 'reserve' dates. It is not apparent what the purpose of this is. The business of the council
The council has removed the reserve dates but is still adding in extra meeting dates for items that are not of a genuinely urgent nature. should be carried out in the meeting timetable set at the start of
This should be avoided. the year.
Extra meetings imply a poor level of internal controls and should be avoided.
Standing orders It is apparent from the minutes of the council that Standing orders are suspended at almost every
All committee chairs should undergo appropriate training and if needs be a chess clock purchased to aid the timely running of meetings. meeting. This is not good practice.
Public participation should be tightly controlled by the Chair so that the meetings of the council can focus on the business on the agenda.
Sales invoicing There does not seem to be a linkup Once the office team is at full strength, between the Avalon hall booking software and the RBS accounts this should be investigated. system.

Data backup At present the data backup is an external hard drive in the care of officers. Cloud backup with a dropbox system for Members document sharing may be worth investigating.
Members may be able to look into this and review options to assist the officers in this.