Minutes of a Meeting of Doddinghurst Parish Council Finance and Resource Committee held on
Thursday 20th May 2021 at 8pm in Parish Room (adjacent to the Parish Room), Church Lane, Doddinghurst CM15 0NJ
Present: Cllrs. Mrs D. Dicker (Chairman), G. Smith, Julia Le Page, A. Smith
Apologies: Cllr M. Capon
1. Introductions. Cllr D. Dicker welcomed everybody to the first F&R meeting since the PC elections at the beginning of May and introduced Carly Niyazi, the new Clerk and RFO who started with the Council on 11th May 2021.
2. Resolution: The first item was the appointment of Chair to the committee. Cllr Dicker was proposed by Cllr G. Smith and seconded by Cllr Julia Le Plage and all agreed.
3. Declaration of Interests relating to items on the agenda. None declared.
4. Resolution: Approved, Minutes of the meeting held on 19th November 2020
5. Information: Update on actions since last meeting.
• Bank reconciliation for 20/21 completed.
• External audit return completed • Audit Variance analysis completed.
• External Auditors letter completed
• Internal Audit completed 19th May 2021
• VAT returns for 2020/21 completed.
• Tax return completed and P60’s issued
6. Information: Noted: Actual v Budgeted income and expenditure outcome for 2020/21
7. Information: Noted: The external audit regime and the Parish Council Audit report (AGAR) for 2020/21
8. Information: Noted: AGAR Governance sign off
• Standing Orders and Financial regulations updated for 2021.
• Transparency Act. Report of expenditure >£100 will be published in the Annual Report (re Transparency Act for smaller authority)
• Financial Risk Assessment. The current process of email sign off for all payments is already approved and will continue for a further 3 months.
• New finance system Scribe is up and running. New cost structure is in place for Revenue and Receipts accounting. New reporting and Budgeting arrangements were discussed.
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9. Resolved: Approved the External Audit submission and Governance Statement compliance for submission to Full Council in June 2021.
10. Resolved: The 2021/22 precept error caused by incorrect Tax Base information from Brentwood Borough Council was discussed and of the 3 options identified, Cllr G. Smith proposed that it should be added to General Reserves and Cllr D. Dicker seconded. All agreed.
11. Resolved: The appointment of the new Proper Officer Carly Niyazi, as Clerk and RFO, to the Council at SP 24 (2020) for 21 hours per week on a NALC based contract of employment was approved.
12. Resolved: The matters raised in the RFO’s memo of 4th May 2021 re personnel changes was discussed. It was agreed to
• Add Carly Niyazi, and Cllr Julia Le Page as authorised signatories.
• To apply for a debit card that can be used for one off payments by the Clerk and RFO. Policy to be agreed.
• The current RFO will continue in post until the new Clerk and RFO has completed her CiLCA and been trained in all aspects of the RFO role.
13. Resolved: Agreed. New Scribe reporting formats were agreed.
14. Resolved: Agreed. The Risk Assessment Schedules for 2021/22 were agreed subject to asking the two new Councillors, Cllr Pond and Cllr Brooks to take on tasks vacated by two previous Councillors who have now left.
15. Any Other Urgent Business strictly for information only. The Councillors were shown the list of potential projects for 2021/22 and discussed lowering the village assistance funding from £5000 to £1000 as it is not required as alternative funding is now available. The RFO highlighted the Projects agreed for 2021/22 which he agreed to scope at the Full Council Meeting on 17th May 2021
The meeting was closed at 9.45 pm
Signed: …………………………. Deborah Dicker (Chairman) Dated: 18th November 2021