Issue - meetings

The Charter Trustees are asked to consider and approve the Annual Governance Statement 2021/22.

Please note that the paper attached for this item also relates to item 8 below

The Charter Trustees considered the Annual Governance Statement set out in section 1 of the AGAR return which had been circulated to each Trustee and a copy of which appears as Appendix ‘C’ to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

The RFO reported that the statement needed to be signed off by the Honorary Clerk and the Chairman in order to comply with the statutory deadline of 30 June 2022.  Charter Trustees were informed that AGAR was published on the Charter Trustees website where it was open for public inspection for 10 working days and subsequently externally audited. The RFO reported that the Annual Governance Statement reflected what had been set out in the internal audit report as the Internal Auditors work to the control objectives of the AGAR.

Councillor Hadley referred to the internal control objectives which indicated that there were a number of questions where the answer was no and asked if that was compliant. Councillor Butler sought clarification on the figures reflected in the AGAR compared to the Outturn Report.

The RFO reported that the figures related to the next agenda item on the statement of accounts but in response to the question it was due to the rounding of the figures.  The RFO responded to the issue raised by Councillor Hadley explaining that the Annual Internal Audit report in some cases deems that the financial regulations had failed and classed the response as no but the subsequent annual governance statement draws upon those findings which has found that in the professional judgement of the Internal Auditors that the controls were still substantial to tick yes.

RESOLVED that the Charter Trustees approve the Annual Governance Statement for 2021/22.

Voting – Unanimous.