Out of sequence payments when a scheduled meeting is postponed

Question

How do you go on for routine, scheduled payments which are usually endorsed by PC monthly but PC meeting is postponed.
Do you make the scheduled payments and seek retrospect PC approval or what approach would you take….?

Answer 1

In my council regular payments made through standing orders or direct debits are approved for the year at the Annual council meeting and then reported as being paid at the next meeting whenever a payment is made.  If a meeting is not held for any reason there is authority within our financial regulations for payments to be made to avoid penalties and they are then simply reported as payments in between meetings at the next available meeting.  This would only apply to payments which are routine and/or for pre-agreed projects/purchases etc. but then we're only a small(ish) council.

Comments

Yes, all understood - model FSOs 5.5 / 5.6 territory.

I have a rather more "delicate" scenario which it wouldn't be appropriate to detail...  I am quite sure I have the correct answer which might be different to the pragmatic answer.  Both options can be supported by a reasonably solid justification and since there is virtually no penalty for deviation from strict compliance anyway, I'm not sure I'm going to spend any more time on it.
It's one of those conflicting legislation scenarios where to do one, results in a breach of the other...

As Captain Jack would say:

https://youtu.be/e4PzpxOj5Cc