Agenda item
Public Question Time (15 minutes)
- Meeting of Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Monday, 15th June 2020 6.30 pm (Item 6.)
- View the background to item 6.
To receive any questions from members of the public provided that a question does not relate to:
· Matters which are the subject of current or pending legal proceedings, or
· Matters relating to employees or former employees of the Council or comments in respect of individual Council Officers
If you would like to ask a question at this meeting, please contact democratic.services@gloucester.gov.uk as soon as possible and by Wednesday 10th of June 2020 at the latest.
Minutes:
6.1 The Democratic and Electoral Services Officer read out a question on behalf of a member of the public who had elected for a written submission. The written submission was read out as follows:
“I can see from the agenda that there is no agenda item to review the latest position with the insolvency of Marketing Gloucester Ltd, a company that was 100% owned by Gloucester City Council. The minutes of the last meeting make several references to the fact that it would have benefitted the meeting if the former CEO and Bookkeeper of Marketing Gloucester had been invited to the meeting. Why is there no agenda item to discuss Marketing Gloucester and why were the former CEO and Bookkeeper not invited to this meeting?”
6.2 In response, the Chair stated that MGL had been discussed by the Committee on several occasions. However, the Committee would continue to pursue any matters of importance alongside any COVID-19 related scrutiny. The Chair added that in relation to MGL, the Leader of the Council had stated that Cabinet would be reviewing the recommendations made at the Special Meeting held on the 10th of March. Similarly, the liquidator ‘s report would likely be coming for consideration at a future Committee meeting. Thus, he would not be ruling out any MGL related scrutiny based on both the recommendations and the liquidator’s report.
6.3 A member of the Public read out two questions. He read out his first question as follows:
“Item 6.10 in the minutes of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee meeting held on the 10th of March 2020 states the following
Councillor Wilson queried whether Councillor James had read the internal audit report in 2017 which followed on from the 2014 whistleblowing allegations. Councillor James advised that it had not been brought to his attention at the time.
Please can you explain why an Internal Audit report on Marketing Gloucester Ltd was not shared with the Leader of the City Council at that time who was also Chairman of Marketing Gloucester? If it was the case that it was not brought to his attention, are there any proposals to review the situation? “
6.4 The Chair responded saying that he was mindful of the fact that Councillor James was not present at the meeting. He then opened the floor to any Cabinet Members or Officers who were able to respond to the question.
6.5 The Corporate Director and Monitoring Officer advised that being mindful of the potential conflict of interest with Councillor James as both Leader of the Council and Chairman of MGL, the appropriate way to let MGL aware of the report was to bring it to the attention of the then Chief Executive at one of the quarterly review meetings as they had done.
6.6 The member of the public asked whether this meant that Councillor James was not aware of the report. The Chief Executive reiterated his point made earlier stating that the then Chief Executive was made aware of the report, and there was a working assumption that he would have informed the board about the report.
6.7 The member of the public then read out his second question as follows:
He read out paragraph 6.16 of the minutes of the Overview & Scrutiny meeting held on the 10th of March 2020 which states the following:
"Finally, in terms of the limited company, he (Cllr James) believed that the limited subsidiary of the UK DRIC was a dormant company with no assets or liabilities. Councillor Watkins outlined that there was an active UK DRIC subsidiary company with both assets and liabilities".
6.8 The Chair reiterated that he was mindful of the fact that Councillor James was not present at the meeting, and thus could not immediately answer the question on his behalf. He then asked Councillor Watkins, Cabinet Member for Communities and Neighbourhoods & former Chair of MGL if she had anything to add.
6.9 Councillor Watkins emphasised that she could not answer on behalf of Councillor James who was not present at the meeting, and suggested that he should have an opportunity to respond to the question. She added that during the suspension of the former CEO of MGL, some information had come to light. This was currently being looked at as part of the liquidator ‘s process. This report would go through the democratic process and would be brought to the Overview & Scrutiny Committee if requested by the Committee.
6.10 Following the meeting, Councillor James provided a written response to the member of the public which he also asked to be included in the meeting minutes:
“In response to Mr Ford’s question, I would point out the following:
1) I wasn't a Director of UK Digital Retail Innovation Centre Ltd. Neither was I on its advisory board nor was I involved with the management of the project.
2) The only publicly available accounts for the company are for the year to 30th November 2018, posted on the Companies House website on 10th August 2019, and are "accounts for a dormant company".
3) I ceased to be the City Council's nominated director of Marketing Gloucester Ltd in May 2019 and would not be aware if its subsidiary entered into any obligations after that date.
I am unsure which part of this Mr Ford feels is "unacceptable".
Since the last O&S meeting, I have been back through my emails and can see that I was sent an email by a fellow MGL Director which made reference to the existence of a subsidiary for the UK Digital Retail Innovation Centre on 18th January 2019, which I shared with Officers on the same day.”