Issued: 21 December 2005
Following The Public Pound
A recent Audit Scotland report places Angus in the top nine of Scotland's 32 councils in terms of its management of funds allocated to third party organisations.
The Following the Public Pound report details how Scottish local authorities are managing the estimated £220million they allocate to around 14,000 companies, trusts and other arms-length and external organisations (ALEOs) each year.
Each council's performance was measured against their compliance with the established Code of Guidance on funding external bodies and following the public pound. Angus Council adopted the code shortly after it was published and put in place operational guidance to help each department of the council comply with its requirements.
The report just published commends Angus Council for its good reporting procedures and particularly recognises the council's work on the guidance and operation of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with third party organisations.
Commenting on the report Resources and Central Services convener Alex King said: "It is good to see the council's culture of sound governance being recognised once again.
"It is particularly gratifying that the work we have put into establishing and refining Service Level Agreements has been highlighted as considerable efforts have been made to make these agreements more robust."
Service Level Agreements are legally binding agreements that set out the expectations of the council and the external organisation involved in delivering the service. They provide a clear framework to ensure there is a consistency of approach and application regardless of the sums involved in the agreement.
Councillor King acknowledged that despite the council's good performance there is still room for improvement, saying: "We now need to examine the recommendations made in our full report to see where we can make further improvements."
Audit Scotland undertook a review of each council's compliance with the Code of Guidance on funding external bodies and following the public pound in 2003 in response to reported problems in existing funding arrangements. This latest Audit Scotland Report on each council's compliance with the code is as a result of a detailed follow up audit carried out earlier this year across every council.
Angus Council is cited in the recent report as having areas of best practice across each of the six principles of the code and is the only council to achieve best practice recognition against all six principles.
The four priority areas identified for improvement are the development of a formal risk assessment model, the provision of training regarding member and officer roles within ALEO's, ensuring that ALEO's have adequate insurance covering any Angus Council member or officer in the role they perform on the board or as decision makers in the ALEO and the development of further guidance on the documentation required to support an exit strategy from an ALEO.
These actions points are now being dealt with, through appropriate revisions to the existing operational guidance, the introduction of new procedures and the tightening up of existing ones and the provision of specific training.