I brought a motion to Council last Tuesday asking the council to remove Lead Councillors from the Audit & Governance Committee where they, in effect, scrutinise their own actions and policies. The subject was brought up by the council’s own external auditors in a report last year but has never been acted upon. Here is what I said in the council meting.

Aside from a number of recommendations regarding financial controls the Ernst & Young report last year made a point of questioning why the Leader of the Council and her Deputy sit on the Audit & Governance Committee, the key scrutiny committee within this Council. It must seem absurd to outsiders that the Leader and her Deputy sit on the committee that scrutinises much of their decisions and policies. Indeed an outsider would wonder how we allowed this to happen when clearly it goes against most ideas of good governance. We should be grateful to Ernst & Young for pointing this out and calling for a review of the make-up of the Audit & Governance Committee as it currently runs against CIPFA guidance on these matters.

I think that the arguments about having the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council sit on the Audit & Governance Committee also extend to other lead councillors and that all Lead Councillors should stand down from the Audit & Governance Committee.

Whilst Lead Councillors sit on the committee it is difficult to maintain that the committee is truly independent of the Administration as it needs to be in order to carry out its functions in auditing the council’s finances and scrutinising the decision making.

Whilst Ernst & Young have called for a review I believe that is audit-speak for they should stand down from the committee and I do not think a review is necessary to bring us in to conformance with CIPFA guidance.

When I approached the Chair of the Audit & Governance Committee, Cllr Stevens was not unhappy about the presence of Lead Councillors on his committee, hence the motion this evening.

Lead Councillors may still attend meetings of the Audit & Governance Committee if this motion is passed. Indeed, they are in a position to answer many questions on why actions were taken but they should have no role in its decision making if we are to adhere to standards of openness and good governance.

We need to think seriously how this important committee must appear to the good citizens of Reading. Would they not think it odd that Lead Councillors sit, in effect, in judgement of their own actions?