Finance FOI

"6A: In the expectation that powered vehicles and mobile equipment (thus including electrically-powered items, as well as those with fuelled engines) are all listed on the Asset Register please ensure that the information provided about this class of asset shows the DVLA Registration Number (or an explanation of why registered), the total acquisition cost (including body-work, painting, and accessories and extra equipment etc.), the BHCC Directorate ‘owning’ the asset; and, for disposals, a note as to the extent that the asset sold included all of the equipment and accessories it possessed whilst in BHCC service, any extra items included in the sale (such as spare parts etc.), and the total costs of preparing and delivering the asset being disposed of to its buyer.
10A: As an explicit part of item 10 above please also ensure that full records/copies are provided of all inspection reports (i.e. also including MOT Test Reports) which show the condition of each vehicle (and/or of any part or aspect thereof).
10C: For the fleet of ‘new; (Mercedes Benz) highway gritting vehicles details (including the cost thereof) of all procedures and arrangements made, or envisaged, to protect the value and integrity of the vehicles and their equipment during the ‘ice-free season’ (from approx. early March to Early October) during 2013-14.
10D: A copy of all reports(s) of BHCC’s ‘Internal Audit Team’ about ‘Fleet Management’ and/or @vehicle and Plant Workshops or Maintenance’ or similar issues relating to the year 2013-14.
12: As a specific sub-set of the information requested under para 11 above records of the individual fuel and engine oil consumption, identified by vehicle, date, and mileage point etc. For all diesel-engine vehicles operated by CityClean (also to Hollingdean Depot). As supplementary verification please also include details of all credit card/fuel card transactions made to provide fuel (this is also to include petrol) and/or lubricants to vehicles operated by CityClean personnel (whether staff or contract/agency persons).
14: Copies of all records relating to capital and revenue expenditure on the Brighton Quadrant ‘Clock Tower’ (including its mechanism), to include specific information as to the status, and/or outcomes (and to include info about any counter-claims) during 2013-14, and as accrued at 1-4-2014.
16: Records of all financial transactions between the Council and the B&H Community & Voluntary Sector Forum/B&H Community
Works (including all of its ‘affiliated’ programmes such as, but not limited to, Change-up, Stronger Community Partnership, City Engagement Framework, LINks/HealthWatch, Transforming Local Infrastructure, etc.), particularly to include copies of the text of the various underlying ‘contractual instruments’, as well as performance and monitoring reports, and correspondence related to the transactions (to also include correspondence with Government bodies and agencies for which BHCC has a specific duty as an ‘Accountable Body’).

17B: Copies of all records relating to capital and revenue expenditure (to include internal BHCC officers time and resources, as well as professional services) on BHCC’s ‘P2B.NET# (‘Place to Be’) website project, together with copies of all contractual arrangements with others (including records of all communications about any aspect of those arrangements during the financial year), during 2013-14, and as accrued at 31-3-2014.

20C: As an explicit extension of the request for company information made at paragraph 15 above please ensure those request also extend to the ‘Housing LDV’ (believed to be called Brighton & Hove Seaside Community Homes, and constituted both as a registered charity, and as a Company incorporated in England with limited liability), regardless of the size of the BHCC’s shareholding (if any) in the LDV bodies (and please identify to me all such shareholdings and/or equivalent interests and/or charges on or on any ‘LDV body’. Please also identify to me the existence and nature of any indemnities existing to protect any Directors/Trustees of any of the LDV bodies, and the costs of providing them (including staff time and professional advice), as well as information about how, and from what monies, those costs were paid. Please also inform me as to the identity of all persons and/or parties who possessed, as at 31-3-2013, any beneficial interest of any kind (including legal charges and/or contractual; rights) in any of the LDV bodies, including the size and nature of each of those ‘interests’.

20D: Please also identify to me the powers that were used to authorise BHCC establishing an LDV body as a registered charity with a second ‘Charitable Object’ being that if the provision of accommodation for older persons when the public record of BHCC Decisions about the LDV does not appear to include any such provisions.

22: A copy of the BHCC ‘Corporate Cost Accounting Code Structure’ used to allocate payments made (to others by BHCC) within the Council’s accounts. Please identify the full set of codes available to be used, even if some of those cost codes were not applied to invoices during 2013-14.
26: Copies of all records relating to capital and revenue expenditure (to include internal BHCC officer time and resources, as well as professional services, and travel and accommodation/subsidence expenses) on providing (to include BHCC’s paying for services procured directly by the recipient) all forms of ‘training’ (to include ‘Personal Development’ and ‘Motivational’ etc.) to any Elected Member during 2013-14. Please show detail to precisely identify who got what when, and at what cost, and the extent to which each item was ‘1-2-1’, or was delivered to a group of (named) Members. Please also indicate what subsequent monitoring has taken place, or is formally arranged to take placer (i.e. when and how), to assess the impact of each provision on each recipient.

28A: For all buildings utilised by the BHCC (in any UK Location) in providing the living accommodation services identified in para 28 above, where at least a total of 5 person/nights were arranged by BHCC during 2013-14, please indicate to what extent BHCC has obtained a formal EPC ‘Energy Performance Certificate’, or equivalent, for that accommodation, and to what extent has and will BHCC arrange to prioritise use of accommodation with high energy efficiency, or to seek a discount on previously charged prices (whether charged directly to BHCC, or made as a ‘Service Charge’ etc. to individual occupiers) for premises with poor energy efficiency (suggested as being in EPC Bands A to D).
41: Records of all deliveries and consumption of all liquid fuels (including LPG and heating/agricultural fuels) and lubricants (including hydraulic and thermal/electrical oils) across BHCC, and of all vehicle consumables such as tyres, batteries and exhaust components. For this latter please include records to chow both the loss of exhaust catalytic convertors (from vehicles as well as from stocks), together with records of monies received by BHCC in respect of the significant rare metal scrap value of catalysts removed from service.
48: Copies of all records relating to capital and revenue expenditure (to include internal BHCC officer time and resources, as well as professional services) on all aspects of the purchase, implementation, migration, and operation of both the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ HR and Payroll ICT Systems (including, but not limited to, hardware, software, support, and updates etc.) during 2013-14, and as accrued at 31-3-2014.
49: Value for Money (‘VfM’), during, I believe, in or about the financial year 2008-9, BHCC embarked on a formal ‘VfM’ programme which appears to still be in operation. Although I have seen references to ‘VfM’ issues in open Committee papers from time to time I do not believe any explicit detail and overview of all specific ‘VfM measure’, with a financial analysis of the achieved cost/benefit outcomes of each measure, has ever been placed in the public domain, Therefore, please provide me with such information about all ‘VfM measures’ (yes, even those with a negative outcome!) since the inception of the VfM programme, as accrued up to 31-3-2014; but with a sub-set of data to readily show the overall year-by-year net financial outcomes when those ‘VfM measures’ with a negative cost/benefit are balanced against the measure which have achieved a positive financial outcome.
50: I do realise, Mr Lines, that some of the above requests may, at first glance, appear to be somewhat onerous but, as I believe you’ve come to understand, there is a great significance in establishing the ‘Quality’ of ‘Management Accounting’ within the operational sections of BHCC, particularly with regard to assets (by which I’m implying that ‘good management accounting systems’ can be expected to provide most of the information I’ve requested with just a few stroke of the keyboard). And on the basis that well-designed ICT systems support the concept of ‘Management by Exception’, whereby all concerned are proactively informed by the system each time there appears to be a divergence from parameters; either from those set by BHCC corporately or from more detailed parameters set by those at lower levels of the organisation. So, whilst I’m sure we both recognise that correct ‘Financial Accounting’ is essential, there is ‘More to Life’ than just being sure that the debits and credits are in balance-the Local Government audit structure, as I’ve come to know it, does also (and quite rightly, IMHO) seem to require consideration of how public money and assets are being ‘Managed’, surely?"