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The Chief Finance Officer is responsible for the administration of the Council’s financial affairs. As part of their duties, they will, when they consider it appropriate, issue Financial Regulations/ Procedures which are the rules governing the management of the Council’s financial resources. S/he will ensure that the Regulations/ Procedures and any updated or amended versions are made available to all chief officers, the Mayor and Members of the Council. These Regulations/ Procedures and any updated or amended versions will then be placed in Appendix A of these Rules.

It is the responsibility of all Chief Officers to comply personally with Financial Regulations/ Procedures and to ensure that all officers within their Directorate with financial responsibilities also comply with them. Failure to comply with Financial Regulations/ Procedures is likely to constitute a disciplinary offence and be investigated under the appropriate disciplinary procedure.

The Constitution of the Council sets out the main delegations and these Regulations identify the additional financial delegations that the Council has decided to make to its officers. The Constitution of the Council also includes the Financial Procedure Rules.

A written record should be maintained of all corporate and directorate schemes of delegation which form part of the Council’s Constitution. This should include the delegated financial powers exercised by specified Council Officers, such as the power to incur costs on behalf of the Council. A scheme of Financial Delegation is set out in Section 3 of these Financial Regulations.

Delegation empowers junior officers, but ultimate managerial accountability remains with the Senior Manager taking a decision under delegated authority.

The Executive is responsible for specifying the limits within which officers have delegated authority to make decisions. These thresholds are as set out in section B10 of these Regulations.

The Chief Executive/Head of Paid Service is also responsible for ensuring that all decisions made by the Executive and the reasons for them are made public. They must also ensure that Council Members are aware of decisions made by the Executive and of those made by officers who have delegated executive responsibility.

Advising all Councillors and officers about who has authority to take a particular decision.

Section 114 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 requires the Corporate Director, Resources to report to the full Council, executive and external auditor if the authority or one of its officers:

When a projected overspend (or under recovery of income) is forecast to occur in a section of the Revenue Budget, or on a scheme within the Capital Programme, Senior Managers and other responsible officers must take measures to eliminate or reduce the overspend and maintain records of such actions.