BOROUGH OF POOLE
REPORT TO THE PORTFOLIO HOLDER WITH RESPONSIBILITY FOR HOUSING, COUNCILLOR SORTON
13TH APRIL 2011
BOROUGH OF POOLE (BoP) AND POOLE HOUSING PARTNERSHIP (PHP) MANAGEMENT AGREEMENT - VARIATION TO DELEGATION AGREEMENT
PART OF PUBLISHED FORWARD PLAN: No
1 PURPOSE
1.1. The purpose of this report is to consider varying the Delegation Agreement between the BoP & PHP, the Council’s Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO).
2 DECISIONS REQUIRED
2.1. The Portfolio Holder is asked to approve an amendment to the Delegation Agreement, to give PHP delegated Authority to sign off Capital invoices, Revenue invoices and Rent Refund payments relating to the Housing Revenue Account, in accordance with the Councils Financial Regulations without requiring a countersignature from the BoP.
3. BACKGROUND
3.1. At present any invoices relating to the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Capital and Revenue expenditure including Rent refund payments are checked and authorised by 2 PHP officers. The invoices are then passed to a BoP officer to countersign before being passed to Creditors to process the payments.
3.2. The current process of a BoP officer countersigning the invoices when PHP officers have already carried out checks adds unnecessary delays to the payment process and does not add any value.
3.3. PHP already have their own scheme of authorisation and delegation for all levels of payments including authorised invoice signatories which is regularly updated and a copy held by the Borough of Poole’s Creditors Section.
4. BENEFITS OF PROPOSAL
4.1 The variation would allow PHP to send the invoices and the rent refund payment requests direct to Creditors to process the payment instead of being passed to Housing & Community Services for approval and then to Creditors.
4.2 The proposal will also allow for:
· payments to be processed quicker
· saving officers time
· enabling both PHP and the BoP to work in a more efficient manner
5. LEGAL IMPLICATIONS
5.1 Legal & Democratic Services will need to produce a Deed of Variation.
6 RISK MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS
6.1 In order to ensure Housing and Community Services (HCS) are able to still monitor payments planned and made by PHP, the proposal is subject to the following:
· BoP and PHP agree in advance a detailed budget and Delivery Plan on an annual basis. This should set out the expected financial commitments in each budget area.
· PHP provide a cashflow forecast against each budget heading and this is kept updated
· PHP to provide Housing & Community Services (HCS) with a monthly report showing expenditure against each of the approved budget headings This will be reviewed, retained and reconciled to Olas by HCS
· HCS will monitor payments against the delivery plan and the cash flow profile on a monthly basis
· PHP to notify HCS of any commitments that may be required that are not included within the budget forecast or delivery plan prior to them being made (and this is also already carried out as part of the Management Agreement)
· PHP to also provide budget information upon the Council’s request
· HCS Contracts Officer and Financial Services to carry out regular budget monitoring
7 EQUALITIES IMPLICATIONS
7.1 The proposal will not have a negative impact on the services provided.
8 CONSULTATION
8.1 The proposal has been discussed with both the Council’s Finance and Audit Services who are in agreement with the variation on the basis that adequate budget monitoring is in place as set out in section 6 of this report.
9 CONCLUSIONS AND NEXT STEPS
9.1 The Portfolio Holder is asked to approve the proposals and authorise Legal and Democratic Services to produce a deed of variation to reflect the proposed variation.
Contact Officers:
CALLY ANTILL
HEAD OF HOUSING & COMMUNITY SERVICES
Telephone: 01202 633440, e-mail:
ROB INGLETON
HEAD OF FINANCE & HR (PHP)
Telephone: 01202 264405, e-mail:
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