The council is committed to good corporate governance arrangements. The basic principles are that the council carries out its functions in a way that demonstrates accountability, effectiveness, integrity, inclusiveness and are up to date.
Every year its internal audit service evaulates the corporate governance arrangments against a best practice checklist produced by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) and the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (SOLACE).
The internal audit service prepares a report giving its opinion on the arrangements and making recommendations for any improvments, which are agreed with the necessary managers before being approved by the audit committee.
At the same time the Local Code of Corporate Governance is amended to take account of the evaluation results and this is also approved by the audit committee. The local code is a public statement of the council's committment to the principles of good corporate governance and in essence sets out the way the council will meet them.
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