Audit, governance and standards

Audit, governance, councillor standards and public accountability.

Audit and Governance Committee

Greenhaven Council’s common governance structure includes an Audit and Governance Committee. Its purpose is to support confidence in the way the authority manages public resources, risk, internal control and governance.

Internal control and assurance

A council needs reliable systems for authorisation, record keeping, financial control and the management of risk. Audit provides independent assurance about whether those arrangements are working as intended and whether weaknesses are being identified and addressed.

Standards

Standards arrangements help maintain proper conduct in public office and confidence in council decision making. Once councillors are elected, this section will publish the councillor code of conduct and the route for raising a standards complaint.

Governance reporting

You will be able to find Audit and Governance Committee meetings and reports, annual governance information and publishable audit material in this section. Information that is lawfully confidential will not be included in the public record.

Current position

No Greenhaven Audit and Governance Committee membership, audit plan or standards casework is currently in force. The committee and associated arrangements will be populated only when lawfully established.

Published assurance information

When the authority is operating, the audit and governance pages will bring together the committee's meetings and reports, the council's annual governance information, internal and external audit material that is publishable, and action taken in response to significant findings. Financial statements and related audit documents will be linked to the finance section rather than duplicated inconsistently.

Member conduct

The standards arrangements will include the code of conduct that applies to councillors and the route for raising an allegation that a councillor has breached that code. A complaint about councillor conduct is different from a complaint about a council service. The website will make that distinction clear and direct each complaint through the appropriate procedure.

Interests

After councillors have been elected, published interests information will be linked from the relevant councillor and committee pages.