Agenda item

Scott Fawcus, Monitoring Officer (MO), introduced his Annual report on matters relating to ethical governance, including details of complaint handling activity carried out in consultation with the Independent Person in relation to allegations of Member misconduct, details of disclosures made under the Council’s Whistleblowing Policy during the last 12 months, and reports made under the Money Laundering Policy.

The Monitoring Officer provided a brief overview of the complaint activity during the period 1st April 2021 to 31st March 2022, which remained mainly static; with 8 complaints received in relation to Borough Councillors, in comparison to 12 complaints received against Parish and Town Councillors (9 Parish Council complaints were received in the previous 12 months).  Of the 12 Parish Councillor complaints received, 9 related to one particular Parish Council which was reflective of the fallout, tensions, and dissatisfactions regarding a decision which had been taken by the Parish Council which was locally controversial.  Appendix A of the report provided a detailed summary of the anonymised complaints dealt with by the Monitoring Officer, in consultation with the Independent Person during 2021/22.

The Monitoring Officer positively reiterated his annual comments that the levels of complaints received and the number of breaches remained very low and that most Councillors and Town and Parish Councils did not appear on his radar. He highlighted that Doncaster has 37 Town and Parish Councils across the Borough and 350 serving Councillors which when put into this context, the total number of 20 complaints received remained proportionately extremely low.

It was noted that two Whistleblowing complaints had been received during this period, details of which were set out at paragraph 16 of the report. No reports had been made to the Money Laundering Reporting Officer in relation to Anti-Money Laundering returns for the period 2021/22. The Monitoring Officer reported that currently there was a reminder to all staff on the Intranet raising awareness regarding on-line training available on money laundering and their responsibilities in this respect.

The Vice-Chair made reference to the number of complaints received relating to one particular Parish Council and asked whether it would be possible for the Monitoring Officer, or a member of Legal Services to attend the a meeting of that Parish Council and to liaise with the public to inform them that the complaints have been investigated, and for the Monitoring Officer to observe how that Parish Council conducts its proceedings at meetings. The Vice-Chair felt that the Parish Council would benefit and welcome any guidance and assistance from the Council in respect of the rules and procedures required at meetings, in particular, in relation to the interpretation/application of their Standing Orders. He also highlighted that their Parish Clerk was newly established at the Parish Council.

The Monitoring Officer advised that he had spoken to members of the Parish Council and the complainant had received a full response to the complaint, setting out the rationale for any action, or any recommendations arising from the investigation of the complaint. He confirmed that he would be happy to attend a future meeting of the Parish Council to provide advice and guidance.  The Vice-Chair welcomed this and gave an undertaking to advise the MO of the date of the next meeting.

Further to a question, the Head of Internal Audit confirmed that investigations into the Whistleblowing complaint regarding concern over a contractors use of Covid ‘furlough funding’ was still ongoing.

RESOLVED that

(1)       the Monitoring Officer’s Annual report on complaint handling activity for the period 1st April 2021 to 31st March 2022, be noted;

(2)       the Whistleblowing return for 2021/22, be noted; and

(3)       the nil money laundering reports for 2021/2022, be noted.