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27 November 2023
Council agreed at its last meeting on 21 November that it will continue to meet every 2 months i.e. Full Council will not meet again until 19 January, then 19 March, with the Annual Parish meeting on 7 May. I voted against as I think Council needs to meet every month.
The Finance Committee was effectively disbanded at the meeting; there was no effort to appoint more councillors to the Committee, despite 2 new councillors being co-opted.
The only good thing is that I now have stacks of time to report on the last Full Council meeting and can do it in stages.
“Emergency powers”
This blog is about my concerns on the emergency powers set out in my blog of 19 November 2023.
These emergency powers were taken by … well I don’t know what to call him.
I try not to be personal in my blogs and avoid using names. But I can’t call him “the Clerk” as he has not been appointed by the Council as required by the law; instead Council agreed to “name” him as Proper Officer.
I did suggest Council might like to appoint him instead but Council just wanted to move on.
It seems a bit discourteous referring to him as “the named person” so exceptionally I will refer to him by name – Mr. Truppin.
Cllrs Jones’ response.
Some of you will have seen the response from Cllr Jones, HPC's Chair, to my blog about the emergency powers.
He said the paper setting out the emergency powers (Appendix I), which I blogged, was confidential and “likely to be a breach of the CoE”. I think Cllr Jones meant a breach of HPC’s Code of Conduct not the Church of England, but you never know.
Cllr Jones asked me to remove Appendix I immediately from my blog. I declined to do this as I believed its release was in the public interest.
I assume Cllr Jones did not know that Mr Truppin had released Appendix I to at least one member of the public, at their request. Appendix I was therefore not confidential so Cllr Jones was incorrect in supposing I had breached whatever it was he thought I had breached.
Cllr Jones also said I had breached GDPR (the General and Data Protection Regulations). The Government’s guidance say the GDPR cover certain organisations. I blog as an individual and not on behalf of HPC - so I don’t think my blogsite is covered. I am not an expert on GDPR and there is a complaints procedure through the Information Commissioner’s Office if anyone would like to check.
Discussion at Council meeting
I have already blogged (on 22 November 2023) about the Bucks Free Press report on what happened when I tried to ask questions about these emergency powers.
What the BFP’s article doesn’t make clear is that some of the other councillors, if not all, did not understand that the emergency powers had removed the Council’s responsibility to authorise payments for the foreseeable future. It was also clear that other councillors did not want to know – or want to consider the implications.
The only question I was able to ask was whether Mr Truppin believed he had the authority to take these emergency powers in October as, at the time, he was certainly not the Clerk. Mr Truppin initially did not answer but, when I repeated my question, he said there was some doubt. Council did not follow this up or ask him to take advice.
None of the Council asked any questions or expressed any concerns and, when I said I had more questions, one of the councillors said I should “put them where I like”. The Council then passed a resolution “to move on”.
Putting my concerns to auditors
So, I have put my concerns to the internal auditor, IAC Audit and Consultancy Ltd, copied to the external auditor, PKF Littlejohn LLP, and Bucks Council.
IAC is not independent; it is contracted by HPC to provide internal audit services. HPC’s budget for these services this financial year is £4300. PKF Littlejohn is contracted to provide external audit services by an agency of the Government. Bucks Council has no jurisdiction over parish councils but I thought they might be interested.
Both internal and external audits are intended by the Government to be light touch. This was a consequence of cuts to the National Audit Commission by the Government some years ago. Eric Pickles, who was then the responsible minister said auditing could be done by the public as “armchair auditors”.
I’m not holding my breathe for something to happen.
Council has not responded to the last 4 internal audit reports. But nothing happened. Council had to say in its statutory statement to the external auditor that it did not maintain an adequate system of internal controls including measures designed to prevent fraud and corruption. But nothing happened.
The upshot, as I have said before, is that parish councils are accountable to no-one, except the electorate once every 4 years.
A copy of my e-mail is below; I am happy to send the more detailed Annex to anyone who asks.
Fraud, corruption and negligence
All I would add is that financial controls start with the basic principle that decisions are made by Council – consisting of democratically elected councillors (or councillors co-opted by Council). Some of those decisions can be delegated to officers who hold considerable power. So the decision to appoint these officers cannot be delegated.
Other financial controls include councils setting budgets, authorising expenditure, authorising payments, appointing a councillor to check bank balances, and ensuring that Council’s financial business is conducted transparently and openly.
Each time one of these controls is weakened or disregarded, the whole system becomes more vulnerable to fraud, corruption and negligence.
Many of these controls are already weak, as Council has already acknowledged to the external auditor. But now Mr. Truppin, in consultation with Cllr Jones, has suspended, for the foreseeable future, an important internal control designed to prevent fraud and corruption. Mr Truppin had no authority to do this.
It means that a person, who has not been appointed by the Council, is now authorising all payments made by Council without any Council checks or oversight.
Mr Truppin, in consultation with Cllr Jones has blown a hole through HPC’s internal financial controls.
Council, except me, just voted this through. I tried to alert Council to the risks but Council just didn’t want to hear.
EMAIL TO INTERNAL AUDITOR, 26 NOVEMBER 2023
“Dear Kevin
1. I have e-mailed you over the past few months about specific incidences where Hughenden Parish Council has failed to comply with its Financial Regulations and/or the law. I will try to put these together in a list for your next audit which I understand is on 13 December.
2. However, I am writing now about a number of interrelated concerns which are urgent and important. I therefore hope you will urgently investigate and report.
3. My concerns, in summary, are that:-
a) on 18 July 2023, Council delegated the appointment of a Responsible Financial Officer to the then Clerk. This delegation did not comply with HPC’s Scheme of Delegation, its Standing Orders or the law. The RFO’s appointment was unlawful and Council’s confirmation of that appointment on 19 September 2023 was therefore invalid;
b) the “naming” of Philip Truppin as HPC’s Proper Officer by the Council on 21 November does not comply with the law;
c) Mr Truppin’s inclusion on HPC’s payroll by someone in October was a breach of HPC’s Financial Regulations and possibly the law;
d) Mr Truppin’s taking of emergency powers on 29 October 2023, in consultation with Cllr Jones, the Chair of HPC, did not comply with HPC’s Scheme of Delegation and its Financial Regulations as, apart from anything else, Mr Truppin was not an officer of the Council at that time and had no authority to take these emergency powers;
e) Ms Beevers, who has been authorising all Council payments since October 2023 has been acting without authority, and perhaps unlawfully;
f) Council has been negligent in not ensuring that the appointments of Ms. Beevers and Mr Truppin complied with HPC’s Scheme of Delegation, Financial Regulations, Standing Orders and the law;
g) Council is negligent in allowing Mr Truppin to take the emergency powers without assuring itself that there were no matters of actual or potential non-compliance with laws, regulations and Proper Practices that could have a significant financial effect on the ability of the Council to conduct its business or manage its finances; and
h) Council is negligent in that it has allowed Mr Truppin to suspend, for the foreseeable future, important parts of HPC’s control measures against fraud and corruption and suspend important parts of Council’s arrangements for effective financial management.
4. I realise that a) and b) above may not be your direct concern. However, these concerns, and others, have financial consequences which I believe are the internal auditor’s concern.
Background
5. Since the local elections, you have carried out four internal audits and made recommendations to Council i.e. in your reports of November 2021, June and November 2022 and June 2023. Council has not responded to you on any of your reports or recommendations.
6. As far as I am aware, you have not followed up on this lack of response.
7. In June 2023, Council submitted its statutory Annual Governance Statement for 2022/23. In that Statement, it was unable to confirm that it “maintained an adequate system of internal control including measures designed to prevent fraud and corruption and reviewed its effectiveness” (box 2). Nor could it confirm that it “took action on all matters raised in reports from internal and external audit” (box 7).
8. Council was informed at its meeting on 21 November that PKF Littlejohn LLP, HPC’s external auditor, had issued its External auditors certificate on 19 September.
9. The external auditor said that HPC “has confirmed that it has not complied with governance assertions in Section 1, boxes 2, 4 and 7 but has provided the appointed auditor with an adequate explanation for non-compliance and details of the actions necessary to address weaknesses identified.”
10. I cannot recall what actions Council said it would take to address its weaknesses and I have asked to see its response to the external auditor. I doubt that Council is taking the actions it said it would.
11. You will also recall that about ten years ago, the then Clerk defrauded the Council and was sentenced to 9 months in prison. Neither the internal or external auditor picked up the fraud. You will understand therefore why I and other residents are particularly concerned that HPC has an adequate system of internal control.
12. I should therefore point out that my concerns, summarised in paragraph 3 above, not only involve breaches of HPC’s Financial Regulations and its Scheme of Delegation, and possibly unlawful action, but also: -
a) Suspend indefinitely important parts of HPC’s control measures against fraud and corruption;
b) Suspend indefinitely an important part of Council’s arrangements for effective financial management; and
c) demonstrate that Council has not taken all reasonable steps to assure itself that there are no matters of actual or potential non-compliance with laws, regulations and Proper Practices that could have a significant financial effect on the ability of the authority to conduct its business or manage it finances.
13. You will recognise that points 12a) – c) above cover boxes 1, 2 and 3 of the Annual Governance Statement. This means that HPC is likely to fail to confirm boxes 1 and 3 for the Annual Governance Statement for 2023/4 and to continue to fail to comply with boxes 2 and 7.
14. I am therefore copying this e-mail to the external auditor.
15. The evidence for my concerns is in the attached Annex.
Kind Regards
Linda Derrick
Council for Widmer End
Hughenden Parish Council”