Agenda item

To receive and consider report 158/08 of the Strategic Director and Head of Finance.

The Committee received and considered report 158/07 of the Strategic Director which provided an overview of debts owed to the Council as well as an aged debt analysis. The Committee was invited to identify any areas which required further investigation.

One Member commented that the format of the report made for difficult reading and requested that in future the figures be presented in a larger font.

The Strategic Director reported that the Business Units listed in the aged debt Analysis Report did not reflect the structure of the Council as the categories had been created fairly haphazardly by the various teams who raised invoices on the Agresso System. The Committee considered that it would be useful to have a breakdown of the aged debt by service area. The Strategic Director agreed that he would provide this to the next meeting.

The Committee heard that the only housing debts that appeared in the aged debt analysis were those that were old. It was reported that the housing department had a different system which contained the current housing debts. Members commented that this meant that the figures presented did not reflect the total level of Council debt.

One Member noted that in considering the histogram (page 15 of the agenda) there was a general downwards trend from May 2008 however in December 2008 there appeared to be an increase. He further commented that it would be helpful to have delineators within the histogram to give an idea of the scale.

One Member questioned whether it was known who the debtors were and whether this information could be available to Members. The Strategic Director agreed that this information could be provided in the case of high value debts. He suggested that it may be helpful to provide an analysis of debt by amount to show, for example how many debts were under £10.

One Member questioned whether the Strategic Director was satisfied with the procedures in place for the recovery of debt. He responded that the procedures were robust and in terms of generating invoices, reminders and final demands the Vale was in good shape. In addition he advised that things in Legal were improving in terms of escalating unpaid debts. However he stated that Legal required evidence in order to commence any formal debt recovery action and was experiencing delays from service areas. 

In terms of procedures in place for recovering debts from businesses it was reported that there were various legal remedies being used such as the use of bailiffs ultimately culminating in the Council being able to issue bankruptcy proceedings. However the Strategic Director advised that some of these were difficult options whether such action was a good use of public money. He commented that it was usually more desirable for the Council to make repayment arrangements with the debtors.

One Member commented that it would be helpful to have details of what proportion of debts were in dispute or had debtors that were unable to pay. The Strategic Director agreed that that this information could be provided.

The Portfolio Holder for finance, Councillor Patterson commented that the Ridgeway Shared Service Partnership Strategic Board looked at the aged debt and sundry debtor reports regularly. He considered that it would be an excellent idea to break the debt down by Service Area. He added that considering and acting on debt to the department should be part of the Head of Service job. One Member commented that in his experience debts were dealt with better when they were owned by a department and suggested that finance and legal work more closely with the service areas.

One Member advised that she would be interested to see how the figures compared with the same time in 2008. The Strategic Director confirmed that this would be possible and would provide this information for Members.