Introduction
Financial regulations provide the
framework for managing the authority's financial affairs. They
apply to every member and officer of the authority and anyone
acting on its behalf.
The regulations identify the
financial responsibilities of the full Council, Executive and
Overview and Scrutiny members, the Head of Paid Service, the
Monitoring Officer, the Head of Resources, other Directors and
other employees.
All members and staff have a
general responsibility for taking reasonable action to provide for
the security of the assets under their control, and for ensuring
that the use of these resources is legal, is properly authorised,
provides value for money and achieves best value.
The Head of Resources is
responsible for maintaining a continuous review of the financial
regulations and submitting any additions or changes necessary to
the full Council for approval.
The Managing Director and
Directors are responsible for ensuring that all staff in their
Groups are aware of the existence and content of the authority's
financial regulations and other internal regulatory documents and
that they comply with them.
Failure of officers to comply
with these Regulations may constitute misconduct or gross
misconduct, depending on the circumstances of the case in question
and may result in disciplinary action being taken in accordance
with the Council's Disciplinary Procedure.
All Council employees must seek
to achieve best value and shall give appropriate consideration
to:-
* Acquiring resources at an
appropriate quality for the minimum cost.
* Ensuring that the maximum
output is obtained from the resources devoted to an activity.
* Ensuring that the output from
any activity is achieving the desired result or target set.
* How each activity fits within
the corporate objectives and how performance can be compared
objectively and by the more subjective views of the local
community.
Where the Head of Resources has
overall responsibility as the responsible financial officer under
Section 151 of the Local Government Act 1972, but the function is
in practice normally delegated largely to another post, the
relevant post is identified in square brackets.