To update the Committee on the freedom of information report presented on 4 March 2013.

The purpose of this item was to update the Committee on the ‘Freedom of Information [FOI] and Arm’s Length Companies’ report that was received by the Committee on 4 March 2013 (minute 53 refers).  The Chairman proposed that, as no senior officer involved with this report was present, the item be deferred.  He said that Mrs. Morawiecka had consistently raised concerns about the status of arm’s length companies and invited her to identify questions and information that she considered to be outstanding.

Mrs. Morawiecka made a number of points, including:

1.       Given that the authority intended to become more of a commissioning organisation, it was considered vital that there was clarity about arm’s length companies and FOI.

2.       The Committee had not been provided with the most up-to-date information from the financial statements for the company, even though these were publicly available.  Concern was expressed that the Monitoring Officer apparently did not have access to such information, despite the nature of the questions being asked.

3.       Issues with the 4 March 2013 report had been raised at the 8 April 2013 meeting (minute 60 refers) and at the 8 June 2013 meeting (minute 5 refers), where the Monitoring Officer agreed to provide a report to a future meeting on the Council’s part in the ownership of Hereford Futures.  Mrs. Morawiecka considered that the current report was inadequate, particularly the omission of reference to the latest financial statements.

4.       The accounts for the year ended 31 March 2012 showed that the turnover for Hereford Futures was less than the grant income received from the Council.

5.       Mrs. Morawiecka said that she had a letter that indicated that Herefordshire Council had made guarantees in relation to the pension for the Chief Executive of the joint venture company.

6.       The answers to previous questions had not been made public or circulated to Councillors.

7.       There was provision for officers to be seconded to arm’s length companies and, whilst this might not be unreasonable in principle, Councillors needed to be assured that they had access to up-to-date, independent and accurate information.

8.       Guarantees were being made by Herefordshire Council that Elected Members were not aware of.  It was claimed that Hereford Futures was not a going concern almost two years’ ago but the Council had guaranteed that sufficient income would be made available to satisfy the auditors.  Mrs. Morawiecka added that this decision had been taken before any Council budget meetings.

9.       Given the financial situation, there needed to be transparency about joint venture companies.

10.     A concern was expressed that Elected Members did not have access to minutes and other information.

11.     There needed to be clarity about the liabilities for the Council in respect of private arm’s length companies and associated employees.

The Chairman thanked Mrs. Morawiecka for her comments and said that he shared concerns about the accountability of third parties and the need to safeguard public money, especially as the Council was increasingly reliant upon private companies to deliver public  ...  view the full minutes text for item 36