Minutes of a meeting of the Audit and Risk Subcommittee

Held in the Council Chamber, Civic House, 110 Trafalgar Street, Nelson

On Thursday 17 September 2020, commencing at 9.04a.m.

 

Present:              Mr J Peters (Chairperson), Her Worship the Mayor R Reese, Mr J Murray, J Edgar and R Sanson

In Attendance:    Councillors T Brand, B McGurk and G Noonan, Chief Executive (P Dougherty), Group Manager Corporate Services (N Harrison), Group Manager Strategy and Communications (N McDonald), Governance Adviser (E-J Ruthven) and Governance Support (K McLean)

Apologies :          Nil

 

1.       Apologies

There were no apologies.

2.       Confirmation of Order of Business

There was no change to the order of business.

3.       Interests

There were no updates to the Interests Register, and no interests with items on the agenda were declared.

4.       Public Forum 

There was no public forum.

5.       Confirmation of Minutes

5.1      11 August 2020

Document number M13044, agenda pages 6 - 14 refer.

 

Resolved AR/2020/044

 

That the Audit and Risk Subcommittee

1.    Confirms the minutes of the meeting of the Audit and Risk Subcommittee, held on 11 August 2020, as a true and correct record.

Murray/Edgar                                                                               Carried

6.       Chairperson's Report   

There was no Chairperson’s Report.

7.       Draft Annual Report 2019/20

Document number R18130, agenda pages 15 - 20 refer.

Group Manager Strategy and Communications, Nicky McDonald, presented the report. 

Ms McDonald noted that the reference to ‘Council Owned Companies’ on page 190 of the Annual Report should be updated to ‘Council Controlled Organisations’, and added that further changes may come via the audit process.

Ms McDonald, along with Group Manager Corporate Services, Nikki Harrison, and Manager Strategy, Mark Tregurtha, answered questions regarding:

·         The performance measures for, and audit processes of, the Council-Controlled Organisations and Council-Controlled Trading Organisations;

·         Audit NZ’s fees relating to the audit process;

·         The financial prudence benchmark, and whether an explanation of how this is measured could be included in the Annual Report;

·         How Council was tracking against the top four priorities for 2018-28;

·         Inclusion of the triennium priorities in the Annual Report, alongside the Long Term Plan priorities; and

·         The impact on Council as an organisation in collating the information required for inclusion in the Annual Report.

It was noted that the draft Annual Report 2019/20 would be audited, then presented to Council for adoption following audit, prior to 31 December 2020.

Resolved AR/2020/045

 

That the Audit, Risk and Finance Subcommittee

1.        Receives the report Draft Annual Report 2019/20 (R18130) and its attachment (A2461046).

Sanson/Edgar                                                                               Carried

 

8.       Health & Safety Governance Charter Review

Document number R14815, agenda pages 21 - 32 refer.

Health and Safety Adviser, Malcolm Hughes, presented the report.  He answered questions regarding elected member engagement with Council’s Health and Safety Committee, and elected member obligations with regards to site visits.

It was noted that changes would be made to the Health and Safety Charter to clarify the expectations of Elected Members with regards to their health and safety obligations through site visits and observation of the Health and Safety Committee meetings, and that it would be presented to the Governance and Finance Committee for approval, subject to signoff by the Chair of the Audit and Risk Subcommittee.

Resolved AR/2020/046

 

That the Audit and Risk Subcommittee

1.    Receives the report Health & Safety Governance Charter Review (R14815) and its attachment (A2288754).

Murray/Edgar                                                                               Carried

Recommendation to Governance and Finance Committee AR/2020/047

 

That the Governance and Finance Committee

1.    Approves the revised Health and Safety Governance Charter (A2288754), subject to signoff by the Chair of the Audit and Risk Subcommittee.

Edgar/Sanson                                                                               Carried

       

9.       Exclusion of the Public

Resolved AR/2020/048

 

That the Audit and Risk Subcommittee

1.        Excludes the public from the following parts of the proceedings of this meeting.

2.        The general subject of each matter to be considered while the public is excluded, the reason for passing this resolution in relation to each matter and the specific grounds under section 48(1) of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 for the passing of this resolution are as follows:

Edgar/Sanson                                                                               Carried

 

Item

General subject of each matter to be considered

Reason for passing this resolution in relation to each matter

Particular interests protected (where applicable)

1

Audit and Risk Subcommittee Meeting - Public Excluded Minutes -  11 August 2020

Section 48(1)(a)

The public conduct of this matter would be likely to result in disclosure of information for which good reason exists under section 7.

The withholding of the information is necessary:

·    Section 7(2)(a)

     To protect the privacy of natural persons, including that of a deceased person

·   Section 7(2)(g)

     To maintain legal professional privilege

The meeting went into confidential session at 9.54am and resumed in public session at 9.55a.m.

The only business transacted in confidential session was to confirm the minutes. In accordance with the Local Government Official Information Meetings Act, no reason for withholding this information from the public exists therefore this business has been recorded in the open minutes.

10.     Confirmation of Confidential Minutes – 11 August 2020

Resolved AR/2020/049

 

That the Audit and Risk Subcommittee

1.        Confirms the minutes of part of the meeting of the Audit and Risk Subcommittee, held with the public excluded on 11 August 2020, as a true and correct record.

Murray/Sanson                                                                             Carried

11      Re-admittance of the Public

Resolved AR/2020/050

 

That the Audit and Risk Subcommittee

1.        Re-admits the public to the meeting.

 

Edgar/Sanson                                                                               Carried

 

 

 

There being no further business the meeting ended at 9.55a.m.

 

Confirmed as a correct record of proceedings:

 

 

 

                                                       Chairperson                                     Date