AGAR and General Power of Competency

Question

Our clerk completed the AGAR last year and auditors also ticked it off. However... I have been doing some checking and the box for General Power of Competency was ticked when we DIDN'T have it. Lack of GPOC is because the Clerk was studying for CILCA but we didn't have an actually holder of CILCA at that time...

This is part of a bigger picture of things I am not sure have been done correctly that I am looking into, but wondered if anyone knows of the possible implications of this?

Answer 1

I don't think there is a box to tick for GPOC. Are you sure you are not confusing it with something else? Are you saying the council actually used the GPOC for something even though they did not actually have it?

Equally i don't believe it's a box for the internal auditor to tick off either. Not the IA's job to check the AGAR has been correctly filled in by council.

Note also that the AGAR should have been approved at a council meeting and signed off by both the Chairman and the clerk present at that meeting. It is the councils responsbility to get it right and not the clerks.

The answer to you last question is nothing - the deadline for making a complaint to the external auditor is now over. If they actually used GPOC powers without having them then any decisions made would have been made ultra vires and would be subject to legal challenge. But unless you have p'd off a multi-millionaire its unlikely anyone would want to incur the significant costs of bringing a legal challenge.So again the answer is nothing (99.99% likely).

Answer 2

Had to go back and double check but there's no question about GPoC on the AGAR form.