MINUTES OF A PUBLIC MEETING BETWEEN HARLECH COMMUNITY COUNCIL AND HARLECH RESIDENTS AT THE OLD LIBRARY, HARLECH AT 7.00 P.M. 08.01.24
ANNWEN HUGHES
APOLOGIES
Cllrs. Thomas Mort, Huw Jones, Emma Howie and Gwynfor Owen (Gwynedd Council).
PRESENT
Cllrs. Edwina Evans (Chairman), Christopher Braithwaite (Vice Chairman), Ceri Griffiths, Gordon Howie, Tegid John, Rhian Corps, Martin Hughes, Giles Bentham, Wendy Williams, and Cllr. Annwen Hughes (Gwynedd Council).
The Chairman welocmed Cllr. Giles Bentham to his first meeting of the Council and wished him well in the future. Cllr. Bentham signed the Declaration of Acceptance of Office at the start of the meeting.
Questions from Mr. Reg Chapman
1 In the light of the Audit Wales report can the Council inform me if any professional advice has been sought or given to them in how to resolve the issues raised in the report.
No further professional advice has been sought as the Council Members were of the opinion that the advice given by Audit Wales in its report would be sufficient.
2 I raised 3 questions to the October meeting. On reading the related minutes I recollect that the first 2 answers given as to whether advice had been sought from Gwynedd Council and One Voice Wales following the scam was NO. The minutes seemed to have been embellished beyond this simple answer and perhaps I misunderstood the response. Would the Chair confirm the minutes as been the response given to the meeting.
The Chair responded by stating that the following answer was the one given at the October meeting.
The Community Council have not been in contact with the Monitoring Officer of Gwynedd Council as the matter has nothing to do with Gwynedd. The Clerk has been in discussions with the Leader of Gwynedd Council with regards to this matter.
The Community Council have not been in contact with One Voice Wales as they would not be able to give them any more advice to what the Community Council knows with regards to this matter.
3 While I have every sympathy as to how the Council were defrauded of public money and the pressures placed on busy individuals I have to ask that the Council reflect upon the scam. This, however unfortunate was the failure or disregard of its financial systems and their mismanagement by a paid employee. Does the Council agree that It has a duty to consider whether this loss of monies could be an act of “Gross Misconduct” by its employee and if so, will it institute a process to take appropriate action.
Cllr. Martin Hughes stated that he proposed the following Motion to be considered at this meeting and it was agreed for Cllr. Martin Hughes to arrange for an independent experienced professional person to attend a Council meeting.
‘During the financial year ending 31 March 2023 Harlech Community Council suffered a serious loss of £9,000 due to fraud, as detailed in Audit Wales’ Report in the Public Interest: Failures in financial management and governance and losses incurred – Harlech Community Council issued in November 2023. So far the Council has failed to investigate and consider the circumstances of the fraud itself and its aftermath, and decide on appropriate action to take. It is therefore proposed that an independent experienced professional person recommended by Un Llais Cymru (or another such body) be appointed to investigate on behalf of the Council and advise on appropriate action, including interviewing the people involved’.
Question from Mr. Brian Jones
Has the Council learnt a lesson from this unfortunate business
Yes the Council has learnt from this and have taken steps to make sure it does not happen again.