Where can I find the legislation for this legal requirement please?

Question

I have recently been checking payments made by the clerk which are recorded on Scribe. I noticed that only 24% have minutes recorded in the required column. It would help to reference the legislation. Thanks

Answer 1

Does the clerk have powers to authorise payments below £xxx?. If so then most payments probably would not require council approval and therefore no minutes to be recorded. The 24% could be the high value payments that required approval from full council.

Comments

I did think about this but they include her salary so I doubt would be delegated.

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What do your financial regulations say?

Answer 2

There is no legislation that requires that the minute reference is recorded in the accounting software for any payment but clearly it is good practice and certainly helps the internal auditor in their work.  Don't forget that authority to make a payment is more than a one stage process as for most payments, unless there is delegated authority to the Clerk or someone to make a purchase (usually reserved for routine matters such as stationery), there would have needed to be a resolution authorising the purchase in the first place (and/or delegating authority to someone to do so) which is then followed by a resolution authorising the payment for that purchase.

Comments

These are relatively big spend items items including the clerks salary so won’t be delegated payments. The local clerk has flagged that the previous clerk did not record some financial decisions in the minutes so she has made the PC go back over minutes to include financial transactions that she thought should be included. She has then removed all the agendas from the web site so you cannot triangulate the agenda item with the newly edited minutes. This is deeply concerning to residents but doesn’t seem to worry the PC

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Are you saying that the previously-adopted minutes have been rewritten?

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I started filming meetings because I was concerned, she clearly states on the film that the previously signed off minutes will be altered and then at another filmed meeting, you can see the chair signing off the new minutes.