Agenda item

Members of the Committee heard from the Section 151 Officer, who introduced the report and outlined the progress that had since been made against the 2023-2024 audit recommendations. At the time of the audit, she explained there was concern over whether Procurement Lincolnshire would be able to provide the required level of support; it was confirmed since the audit that this support had in fact been in place. In terms of further updates, the Section 151 Officer explained that questions regarding procurement exception procedures, which had been raised at the 24 September 2024 meeting by the External Auditors, would be addressed as a specific agenda item later in the meeting.

The Chair thanked the S151 Officer for her introduction and invited discussion from the Members.

In response to a question, the S151 Officer explained that Procurement Act training had been taking place since July 2024 and would run on until February 2025; in terms of the implementation of new regulations, she highlighted the importance of the Council’s Constitution approval date closely mirroring the release date of new regulations to ensure adherence.

The S151 Officer responded to a question regarding the approval of the procurement training; she explained that the training was carried out in line with the upcoming Procurement Act by Procurement Lincolnshire, who were qualified Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS) officers, and were all signed off by the Cabinet Office’s programme. In addition to this, she outlined that the Council was using its own Officers and procurement links to deliver this training, and after each training session feedback had been sought from participants to enable the training to develop further. In response to this, the Chair noted a Member of the Committee’s trepidation regarding the level of oversight and scrutiny from elected Members in the training process, adding that these concerns would be examined by the Council’s Internal Auditors.

The Committee enquired about the ‘No Purchase Order (PO) No Pay’ policy reporting mechanism, to which the S151 Officer responded had been in place and working well since the beginning of October 2024. She continued, adding that a slight deterioration would occur in payments being made within 30 days, however, that 98% of payments with receipt of invoice would still be made within 30 days; the policy would then remain in place unless Members chose to remove the requirement.

A question was raised about the succession planning in place for the work of the Contract and Procurement Officer; the S151 Officer assured the Committee that some Change Support Officers would be trained to provide resilience and continuity for the Contract and Procurement Officer.

The Chair commented that it had been positive to see how the Council worked with Procurement Lincolnshire.

Lastly, in response to a question from the Committee, the S151 Officer explained that Procurement Lincolnshire would be audited by Lincolnshire Internal Audit, and that she would seek to obtain a copy of a recent audit report to be shared with Members.

With no further comments or questions, it was

RESOLVED that the update provided to the Governance and Audit Committee be noted.