Finance, Procurement & IT Cabinet Member – Minutes – 2 March 2012

26  (25)  VIREMENTS 2011-2012 – The Director of Finance submitted a report seeking approval for changes to the revenue  and capital budgets for 2011/2012.

On 23 February 2011 Council approved the revenue and capital budgets for the 2011/2012 financial year.  The report gave details of virements approved by the Director of Finance under delegated powers and those that required Cabinet Member approval.

Resolved – (a) That the virements at paragraph 3.1 of the report, approved by the Director of Finance under delegated powers be noted, and (b) that the permanent virements outlined in paragraph 3.2 of the report be approved.

27  (26)  Business Rate Relief – The Director of Finance submitted a report considering the level of Business Rate relief to be awarded to ratepayers in North Lincolnshire. 

The former Policy Committee agreed the legal position and administrative practices for dealing with rate relief on 22 January 1996.

The Corporate Services Cabinet Member on 20 February 2004 (minute 128 refers) agreed to adopt a scoring system based on set criteria for the awarding of discretionary rate relief.  On 7 February 2005 (minute 233 refers) he agreed to amend the criteria.  On 21 December 2006 he also agreed to update the criteria and gave approval to the Director of Finance to authorise relief where the level of relief remained unchanged.

There was no discretion about granting mandatory relief.

Resolved – That the level of rate relief be awarded to each applicant as set out in the schedule attached to the report.

28  (27)  CONSULTANT USAGE – QUARTER 3 2011/2012 – The Director of Finance submitted a report to advise on the consultancy usage for the third quarter of 2011/2012, to highlight the consultancy usage to support major projects within North Lincolnshire and to advise on the overall effectiveness. 

Cabinet had introduced a new protocol for the use of consultants as part of a package of cost management measures. The protocol required services to report their use of consultants on a quarterly basis for 2010/2011.  

The Director of Finance confirmed that following extensive consultation with all services, the report set out a summary of consultancy usage for quarter two 2011/2012, details of which were presented in Appendix A to the report. 

Resolved – That the findings set out in the report for quarter 3 2011/2012 be noted. 

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Where there is no report this is because it is exempt, as it contains information which is considered to be of a confidential nature, as detailed in the Local Government (Access to Information) Act.