Agenda item

As part of this item a presentation will be provided on Risk 3.6: If a replacement Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is not implemented successfully the Council will not reap the benefits and the Council’s financial and HR activity could be negatively impacted upon.

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Corporate Resources, the purpose of which was to provide an overview of key risks faced by the Authority and the measures being taken to address them.  The report also provided an update on Counter Fraud and Insurance and set out proposals to undertake a Risk Management Maturity Health Check.  A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 12’, is filed with these minutes.

The Committee also received a presentation on risk 3.6 on the Corporate Risk Register: If a replacement Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is not implemented successfully the Council will not reap the benefits and the Council’s financial and HR activities could be negatively impacted upon.  A copy of the presentation slides is filed with these minutes.

Presentation – Replacement ERP system

(i)            Members welcomed the approach adopted to mitigate risks and the proposed phased approach which would allow for rigorous testing at each stage.

(ii)          Oracle Fusion had been on the market for approximately 5 years and it had been selected by 5000 organisations as their ERP system of choice.  The Authority was in contact with some of these organisations to ensure experiences were shared and learned from.

(iii)         At the point of implementation, the Council would receive the most up to date version of the software that was available.

(iv)         Savings from the new system would not be generated until the second year of implementation.  During the first year, the Authority would need to run both the current and new ERP system simultaneously to allow time for further testing and to ensure arrangements were properly bedded in.

(v)          Prior to migration to the new system a full and comprehensive programme of work needed to be undertaken to asses circa 200 data objects.  Data cleansing had been undertaken under the current system but this had been done on an ad hoc basis as part of ‘business as usual’.  It was intended that, going forward, a more structured approach to data cleansing would be undertaken to ensure the new system continued to operate as effectively as possible.

Risk Register

(vi)         Risk 1.3: S106 monies not being managed properly.  A recent report to the Cabinet had confirmed that over the past five years around £900,000 S106 funding has been repaid to developers.  Such repayments related to bus passes, bus services and some capital works.  Members questioned whether any S106 monies allocated for services such as education had had to be repaid.  The Director undertook to confirm whether or not this was case after the meeting.

(vii)        Risk 1.7: Compliance with HMRC IR35 – employment of self-employed personnel.  The Council could be non-compliant as a number of officers operated on agency contracts or were registered as self-employed e.g. social workers, IT consultants, construction workers.  The matter was being looked into and policies and processes were being improved to address this.

(viii)      A member questioned the impact of recent reports that Fosse Healthcare, a company which provided home and health care services on behalf of the Authority, had failed to correctly pay its employees.  The Director undertook to look into the matter and provide a response to members after the meeting.

RESOLVED:

(a)  That the current status of the strategic risks and emerging risks facing the Council, as detailed in the report and the Council’s Corporate Risk Register, be noted;

(b)  That the update regarding counter fraud initiatives and insurance be noted;

(c)  That proposals for the managing agent of the Council’s current insurers, Risk Management Partners, to undertake an external assessment of the Council’s risk management arrangements, as detailed in paragraphs 18 to 23 of the report, be supported.