Ferret can confirm that Mr Alan Draper – Clerk, Independent Hemsworth Town Council has sent a further response to the questions which were originally submitted back in October 2021.
Readers of Ferret may recall, that at the meeting Mr Jim Kenyon – Chair, Independent Hemsworth Town Council stated that He hadn’t got time to answer all the questions, but that any submitted would receive a reply in writing. He later retracted this offer and refused to respond to the questions which had been submitted.
A member of our Parish subsequently submitted questions to Independent Hemsworth Town Council as part of a Freedom of Information (F.O.I.) request.
Here is the reply from Mr Alan Draper:
Dear Mr Ferret,
As per my previous email, due to the volume of questions I will send the replies in several tranches. This is the second tranche – please see the responses below.
Kind regards,
Alan.
Why did this council change from a predominately BACS payment system which is accountable and transparent to a system that has seen:
- A dramatic increase in petty cash payments?
- A dramatic increase in cash book payments?
The council still has a BACS payments run every month. That has not changed. “Cashbook” is a bit of a misnomer. All payments of all types are recorded in the cashbook.
Hemsworth Town Council previously he held “Quality Status”. Why did this Council lose quality status?
The “quality status” scheme has been replaced by the “Local Councils Award Scheme” for which the council has foundation status.
Is this because it required higher levels of accounting and auditing that could only be of benefit for the security of our Community cash and assets?
As above.
When the Lakeside Café Bar accounts failed to balance, why did Hemsworth Town Council change accountants to Mr Simon Knee?
Mr Knee is not the council’s accountant. He is the council’s internal auditor.
Can you please explain the process behind how Hemsworth Town Council appointed Mr Simon Knee? The same Mr Simon Knee who was Secretary at A.G.& H.G. GROUNDWORKS LIMITED which is owned by Councillor Gordon Eccles and his wife Jean.
Mr Knee was first appointed as the council’s internal auditor at the annual council meeting in May 2019 when Cllrs G & J Eccles each declared a pecuniary interest. Mr Knee has since been re-appointed by the council each year as the internal auditor.
What is Hemsworth Town Council’s procurement policy? Where is it published online? And if it isn’t Why not?
The council does not have a stand-alone procurement policy per se as the relevant rules/regulations are contained with the council’s standing orders and financial regulations which are published on the website.
Once again, Ferret is not at all surprised at the lack of answers and the disdain shown towards the Precept payers of the Township with the lack of detail in the answers provided from Mr Draper.
Ferret believes Mr Draper’s evasiveness and unwillingness to answer in any great detail, the questions posed speaks volumes…
Coming Thursday to Ferret…The full financial impact of the completed Saul agreement on our Township and as Cilla would say: Surprise, Surprise, it’s not as Jimmy would have you believe…
How to answer questions without providing any real answers to the questions asked, has he been tutored by Kenyon ? He needs to go.
Ducking and diving. This is part of why I no longer watch the live streams anymore. No answers just waffle.
Perhaps we need to dive further into Mr Simon Knee of Horbury – perhaps he’s not a qualified accountant?!
What are his qualifications and do we (the HTC Councillors) know his background?
How did he manage to complete his internal audit remotely, during the pandemic? How thorough is he?
On what basis is he “independent” if he already worked for a Councillor?
This appointment is made to safeguard our (residents) interests – we need to have full confidence in this person to be able to do their job diligently, comprehensively, without prejudice and with the skills and experience required.
I’m not convinced we can tick all (any?) of these boxes. Can our Councillors?
Mr Simon Knee has been involved with several companies over the years inc AG &HG Groundworks. The correspondance adress for most of these has been at Conisborough Way in Hemsworth. Horbury Financial isn’t in Horbury…it is actually in Ackworth.
draper will only give answers after consulting with Kenyon and even then he will not answer the question asked directly. he needs sacking asap once Kenyon is out along with Knowles
I’ve just looked through the Horbury Financial Services Ltd website and there’s no mention of any qualified accountants, so we can assume that Simon Knee isn’t professionally qualified.
Nor does their website offer an “Auditing” service to businesses, either internal or external.
The company specialises in selling mortgages and insurance – it is not set up to provide audit assurances.
So maybe they are also selling HTC insurance deals, on commission.
If HTC Councillors had carried out an effective due diligence procedure, they would have realised that Simon Knee is not best qualified to provide an internal audit service.
Oh dear. What was their hiring decision based on?
If this contract is up for review, I’d suggest HTC need to look for a professional who is qualified in the job.
Any more non-answers on the horizon?
I’m sure there were lots more sent in to the Town Clerk, for the attention of Cllr Kenyon, last October.
If you scan through all these daily posts, there’s so many relating to the lack of information or mis-information.
Nothing else should be up for approved spending until we have clarity and answers.
TRANSPARENCY please.