Falklands : Committee News: Standing Finance Committee
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 23.09.2005 (Article Archived on 07.10.2005)
Some public finance items were discussed in part 1 of this meeting.
COMMITTEE NEWS: STANDING FINANCE COMMITTEE
By J. Brock (FINN)
A meeting of the Standing Finance Committee took place at 0800 in Friday, 23 September 2005. Attending the meeting were Cllr. Mike Summers (Chair), Cllr. Stephen Luxton, Cllr. Ian Hansen, Cllr. John Birmingham, Cllr. Jan Cheek, Cllr. Norma Edwards, The Deputy Financial Secretary, Mr. Keith Padgett, the Financial Secretary, Mr. Derek Howatt and the Chief Executive Mr. Chris Simpkins. Apologies came from Cllr. Richard Cockwell, who is attending party Conferences and from Cllr Roger Edwards.
Confirmation of the minutes of the open meeting held on 26 August 2005 was agreed. Matters arising from those minutes were brought up with the finishing date still unknown. Cllr. Summers mentioned that the work crew seemed to be stuck at the bottom of the hill, not moving and he doesn’t know why. An e-mail sent by DPW indicated that work would take longer than anticipated because more work will be needed to the base construction of the road.
An item regarding an erroneous invoice for approximately £250,000.00 was discussed and it was decided that the system had no billing mechanism for the Government of South Georgia.
Funding to replace the central heating in the Education Office was approved. A private contractor is being used to do the work.
There was mention of a glitch in the Tooth-fish Licencing that needed to be resolved. It had been discussed at the last ExCo meeting and will probably be discussed at the next SFC.
Following the Standing Finance Committee meeting on 29 July, a proposal and costing for new exercise equipment at the Leisure Centre was presented by the Recreation Manager, mr. Steve Dent. Though Option 1 was preferred, money had to be found from the Education and Health and Medical Services budget to cover the costs. It was unlikely this would be found during this financial year. It was thought unlikely that reconditioned second-hand equipment would not suffice because the life expectancy would be 2 or 3 years and not the 5 years of new machinery. Cllr. Summers was happy to fund either option 1 or 2 but stressed that money must be found before any purchase of equipment could be realised.
Cllr. Hansen brought up travel expenses when the Director of Education is recruited. The original estimate was £2,000.00.
The sale of under used farm equipment should take place and money invested but only a portion of the money would be retained by the entity selling the equipment and the rest would go back to FIG general funds. SFC approval had to be sought before the machinery was sold and a proportion of money invested.
The Principal Auditor’s report brought general discussion. Itemsbeing negotiated were not up for discussion. Grants for off street parking would go ahead and a sum identified for Port Development was identified. There was no need to recruit a new person for the Civil Aviation Department but there will be a further report from the Financial Secretary.
At the end of Section 1 the Press and Public left.
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