By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter
Eight recommendations will be placed before the Democratic Services Committee today to bolster scrutiny provision in Powys.
This includes creating another committee and recommends not having council Cabinet members on scrutiny working groups.
The Scrutiny Development Board has come up with the proposals to bolster the scrutiny provision at Powys County Council.
The discussion follows the Welsh Audit Office (WAO) report, Overview and Scrutiny, Fit For the Future?
This highlights weaknesses in the current scrutiny structure at Powys and gives advice on improvements.
The WAO believe that: “The Council has been slow to develop its scrutiny arrangements and there are fundamental areas it needs to address if scrutiny operates effectively and have impact in the face of future challenges.”
At the moment PCC has two main scrutiny committees: The Health, Care and Housing; and Learning, Skills and Economy Scrutiny Committee.
Their areas of interest could be split into three committees.
• Economy, Residents, Community and Governance
• Health and Care
• Learning, Skills and Culture
The Audit Committee which has been used to scrutinise some topics would concentrate on the finances and internal auditing of departments as well as looking at the annual report.
The recommendations also include re-introducing Working Groups, where members of scrutiny committees can look at a topic in detail before reporting their findings back to the parent committee.
The recommendations are:
• That Cabinet Members should not be members of Scrutiny Working Groups
• That Member Champions could assist scrutiny working groups but not be formal members of those groups
• That Working Groups should be set as and when required by the Coordinating Committee and would need to be justified
• That the reports of Working Groups be referred to the Coordinating Committee for approval before submission to the Cabinet
• Working groups would have a maximum of five members on a non-political basis
• Up to two members who are not on a scrutiny committee but have a particular skill or have expressed an interest in a Working Group Subject can take part in it
• That there should not be more than two working groups held per committee in a six weekly committee cycle
• That the chairs of Scrutiny Committees are required to attend all working groups for their respective committees, but other members would lead that group
