Issue - items at meetings - Officer Employment Procedure Rules

Report of the Acting Director of Strategy & Governance (copy to follow).

RESOLVED –

(i)         That the Governance Committee recommends to Council the approval of the amendments to the Contract Standing Orders, Financial Regulations and Officer Employment Procedure Rules as shown in Appendices 1, 2 and 3 to this report.

31.1    The Committee considered a report from the Acting Director of Strategy & Governance regarding Consequential Amendments to Procedure Rules in the Constitution.

31.2    The Acting Director of Strategy & Governance, Mr Ghebre-Ghiorghis, introduced the report and noted that the current procedure rules referred to Officer posts that would not exist following the changes brought about by Intelligent Commissioning. The power to approve expenditure over £500,000 would be retained by the Strategic Directors, as would the powers to waive contract orders or vary/extend contracts without re-tendering. The new procedure rules would emulate as closely as possible the existing structure. One change would be to bring the rules in line with current practice regarding the number of panel Members who normally sat on selection panels for posts above a certain grade.

31.3    Councillor Brown felt that the collective references to some officer groups might be confusing for members of the public and Mr Ghebre-Ghioghis agreed and replied that this had been noted. However, it was difficult to find a collective term that was not open to misinterpretation and it would be onerous to list the names of each officer post in the procedure rules. This was therefore deemed the easiest shorthand expression.

31.4    Councillor Elgood asked if it was appropriate for the Head of Law to be the Monitoring Officer and not a Strategic Director. Mr Ghebre-Ghiorghis replied that it was normal practice for the Monitoring Officer to be a lawyer, due to the nature of the work.

31.5    RESOLVED –

1.         That the Governance Committee recommends to Council the approval of the amendments to the Contract Standing Orders, Financial Regulations and Officer Employment Procedure Rules as shown in appendices 1, 2 and 3 of the report.