A report by Audit Wales highlighting continued problems with the work of Powys County Council’s scrutiny committees, has been criticised by a former cabinet member.
Earlier this year Audit Wales conducted a follow up review to see if issues they raised back in 2018 had been addressed.
In 2019 a third scrutiny committee was added to the existing two to help improve the process.
Audit Wales who examine how public bodies manage and spend public money and delivery of public services. concluded in their report that the council had made “limited progress,” in addressing the issues.
The report was discussed at a meeting of the Democratic Services committee, on Thursday, November 4.
At the meeting the council’s head of legal and democratic services, Clive Pinney told councillors that Audit Wales had 10 recommendation and six “areas of concern” to address.
Cllr Graham Breeze who stepped down from the cabinet last May, said: “I’m disappointed with the tone and content of some parts of this report, it makes fleeting reference to the small matter of a worldwide pandemic.”
He pointed out that Powys had been working in emergency mode for “close on 18 months” protecting residents and staff in the “worst possible situation we’ve been in since wartime”.
Cllr Breeze also believed that Powys have held more scrutiny meetings during the pandemic than any other authority in Wales “but there’s no mention of this.”
He added that work to address some of the criticisms was “already under-way or completed.”
Cllr Breeze said: “There is always room for improvement when considering the priorities in the last 18 months, many of the comments are unfair and unjustified and most importantly out of date.”
Cllr Linda Corfield believed the Audit Wales report to be “navel gazing”
Cllr Corfield said: “Sometime these scrutiny (meetings) are far too strategic, and we work at the operational level.
“People come to us and want to know why their potholes aren’t fixed and where their recycling is going and things like that.”
But Cllr Jackie Charlton disagreed and believed the report to be “fair.”
As someone who worked on the “problems of scrutiny” in 2018, Cllr Charlton said that much of what was needed to be done had not been implemented.
Cllr Charlton said: “I wonder if that’s down to resources.
“You need to put in awful lot of effort and activity around training, for setting up working groups and getting the public engaged and do all the things we’ve said we’ll do.
“If we have the same resources we’ve had since 2018, that’s not going to happen.
The draft action plan to address the recommendations and be submitted to Audit Wales was approved by the committee.
The recommendations from Audit Wales include:
Looking again at the performance indicators set out in our 2018 and fully address them.
Clarify the role of the finance panel and assure itself that it is lawfully constituted.
Allow scrutiny committees to plan their work programme over a longer time frame and what outcomes it hopes to achieve.
Provide further training to councillors and relevant officers on the roles and responsibilities involved in an effective scrutiny function.
