Members are asked to consider whether they have any disclosable pecuniary interests and/or any other relevant interest in connection with any item(s) on this agenda and, if so, to declare them and state the nature of the interest.

Members were asked to consider whether they had any disclosable pecuniary interests and/or any other relevant interest in connection with any item(s) on this agenda and, if so, to declare them and state what they were.

No such declarations were made.

The Assistant Chief Executive reported that alongside proposals to revise the Constitution as part of the Council’s Improvement Plan, proposals were also being developed to revise the council’s Contract Procedure Rules and Financial Regulations, both of which had been in place for some years and had been subject to periodic changes and additions at various times, predominantly in response to actions resulting from internal and external reviews.

i. Proposed Revised Contract Procedure Rules

The Assistant Chief Executive presented the proposed revised CPR’s, in draft form, for consideration and comment and indicated that the proposed revisions had been based on the following principles –

(i)  respond in part to the overall commitment given to review the council’s Constitution and Schemes of Delegation as part of the council’s Improvement Plan and also to respond to recommendations of the recent Peer Challenge in respect of clarification of Member and Officer roles and responsibilities;

(ii)  form part of the response to the HESPE report and the resultant Action Plan, both in terms of the CPR’s themselves and also using any approved, revised rules and documentation as part of specific staff training on Procurement and Contract Procedures;

(iii)  respond to a position where the existing CPR’s require updating to take account of current and potential future developments, for example, joint commissioning with other authorities and organisations, shared services with other councils and the council’s role as commissioner of services with a variety of private, voluntary, community and faith organisations;

(iv)  the need to integrate existing functions with new functions and responsibilities in particular Health.

He commented that the review had been undertaken by a small group of key users who had the greatest involvement in the letting of contracts and had included input from Health and Internal Audit.

Having considered the CPR’s used by a number of local authorities, it had ultimately been decided that, with their permission, the CPR’s from Cheshire West and Chester Council would be used as the starting point for the review and as the basis for Wirral’s proposed procedures. They had been tried and tested and had stood up to scrutiny and he commented that any future joint procurement with Cheshire West and Chester Council would be aided by each Council sharing a similar set of CPR’s. The revisions had sought to clarify the Member/Officer role in that decisions related to the award of contracts were defined as an officer responsibility, with Members holding officers to account through the scrutiny process. The proposed revisions introduced a simplified procedure for individual items of expenditure below £500 and sought also to simplify and clarify officer roles in respect of contract variations and proposals.

ii. Proposed Revised Financial Regulations

The Interim Director of Finance presented the proposed revised Financial Regulations, which were based upon –

(i)  the overall commitment given to review the Council’s Constitution and Schemes of Delegation as part of the Council’s Improvement Plan and to respond to recommendations of the recent Peer Challenge in respect of clarification of Member and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 63.