At a meeting of the Democratic Services Committee on Friday afternoon, September 25, councillors received a report on the proposal ahead of it going in front of a full council meeting on October 8.
Councillors have raised concerns about the move, which was explained by council officers as a tidying up of the council’s financial governance arrangements, and to avoid duplication.
They pointed out that a “Budget Advisory Group” had been established last year, giving councillors across the political spectrum an opportunity to feed into the annual budget-setting process.
Committee chairman Cllr Graham Breeze (Powys Independents – Welshpool Llanerchyddol) is also a member of the Governance and Audit (GAC) Committee.
Cllr Breeze said: “I have requested that this report is not discussed today and deferred for further review.
“There are significant concerns about proceeding with this recommendation at this stage, particularly in view of concerns raised by the GAC this morning regarding the council’s financial governance arrangements.”
Head of business intelligence and governance Catherine James said: “The proposal was put forward by officers; the objective is to avoid duplication whilst maintaining effective democratic oversight of our use of resources.”
She explained that an external Panel Performance Assessment review of council functions from April had provided nine recommendations for improvements, including one on the Finance Panel.
This recommendation suggested the council “rationalise” its financial governance arrangements by “reviewing the purpose, remit and membership of the Finance Panel and the potential for duplication and confusion with the legitimate functions of the established scrutiny committees.”
She said that the review and a council action plan in reply to the recommendations had been looked at by the Governance and Audit Committee that morning.
Ms James explained the action plan included a proviso that the review would take place “no later” than December.
Ms James said: “GAC did recommend that it would want to be part of any review and that any subsequent report is taken to a future GAC meeting.”
She suggested that this would be added to the proposal.
Cllr Breeze said: “I don’t feel I’d like to carry on with this today, I’m mindful we have deadlines.”
He put forward a motion to postpone a decision and withdraw the item from the agenda.
Cllr Gareth E Jones (Powys Independents) said that he was “happy to support” deferring the proposal.
He added that the role of the Budget Advisory Group needed to be looked at and put into the constitution if it were to continue.
Cllr Pete Lewington (Conservative – Newtown West) said: “I don’t think this should come back to this committee until GAC have had their opportunity to do what they should have been allowed to do in the first place and review the implications of this.”
Councillors agreed that the proposal would come back in “due course.”