“At a meeting of the audit committee of the council held on 22 March 2016 the committee considered a summary report on the leisure facilities at Pembrey County Park and the Millennium Coastal Park that raised a signi?cant number of concerns, including (but not exclusive to), health and safety, staff timesheet records, non-compliance with council ?nancial procedure rules, procurement, collecting and accounting procedures, asset management and general noncompliance with council policies.
These concerns are outlined in an internal audit report (reference: 5215010) that has not been fully made public or circulated to county councillors.
Has the executive board member seen this report and if so, what action has he taken to establish how much public money is at risk, potentially missing and if missing, how much is recoverable?”
Minutes:
“At a meeting of the audit committee of the council held on 22 March 2016 the committee considered a summary report on the leisure facilities at Pembrey County Park and the Millennium Coastal Park that raised a signi?cant number of concerns, including (but not exclusive to), health and safety, staff timesheet records, non-compliance with council ?nancial procedure rules,procurement, collecting and accounting procedures, asset management and general noncompliance with council policies.
These concerns are outlined in an internal audit report (reference: 5215010) that has not been fully made public or circulated to county councillors.
Has the executive board member seen this report and if so, what action has he taken to establish how much public money is at risk, potentially missing and if missing, how much is recoverable?”
Response by Councillor David Jenkins, Deputy Leader [Resources]:
“I would in the first instance refer Cllr. Thomas to statements made by Cllr. Dole in his earlier response to the notice of motion item 5.3 on today’s agenda as to the situation leading up to the initial publication of the summary report that went before the Audit Committee on the 22nd of March.
It is perhaps easy to understand Cllr. Thomas’s confusion in this situation in that the report that went to the Audit Committee on the 22nd March 2016 was called a ‘summary report’ which possibly implies that this report was a summary of a completed full report, which in fact is not the case. It might have been better understood if the report that went to Audit Committee on the 22nd was called a preliminary report because the full report is still in the process of being drafted and not due to be published for another 2 to 3 weeks. Therefore in answer to his question I must say that I have not seen the full report for the reason stated.
During discussions on the summary report at the Audit Committee Cllr. Bill Thomas required further investigation and expressed concerned about possible fraudulent activities at Pembrey Country Park. The Head of Audit and Procurement confirmed at the committee meeting that no fraud had been identified during investigations conducted to date. Therefore it is virtually impossible for me to state how much public money is at risk, potentially missing and if missing how much is recoverable given that no fraud had been identified during the investigations conducted to date.
In conclusion I would state that normal Carmarthenshire County Council procedure is that once the Final Report is published copies will be provided to the Departmental Director, Director of Corporate Services (S.151 officer), Relevant Executive Board Members and Chair of Audit at which time possible further actions, regarding findings contained within the full report will be considered.”
Councillor Ryan Thomas asked the following supplementary question:
“Given that this report has not been completed will he endeavour to ensure that it is circulated to all Councillors upon its completion subject to appropriate redactions.”
Response by Councillor David Jenkins, Deputy Leader [Resources]:
“To some extent I have already answered that question in that once published it will be circulated to the people I’ve mentioned and again, due procedure will be followed and, if at the end of the day it is to come before the Council, it will be done so and anything that is sensitive would be redacted etc. for the purpose of confidentiality but again it’s a case of waiting to see what the full report says and we will move on from that once it has been published to the relevant people listed previously.”