Annual Report 2019 Court of Auditors

Before you is the annual report for 2019. With this annual report, the Court of Auditors of Gemert-Bakel - Laarbeek wants to account for its activities in 2019.
Prior to each year, in consultation with the direction group, we ask your council to identify topics that we as the Court of Auditors could take up. However, in order to be even more attuned to your wishes, we met separately with all groups from your council in 2019. The goal was to get to know each other better, especially since there may be (new) members in your council with whom we have not spoken before. Also
We also discussed what the council members consider important for further research in the coming years.
In this way we as the Court of Auditors can conduct research that is as focused as possible. We found these discussions to be valuable. We had an ambitious research agenda for 2019. Fortunately, we were able to realize this agenda. This annual report briefly explains the various investigations. However, in the fall we were caught off guard by a possible halving of our research budget. This made us decide to stand still for a while. We are pleased that the budget was eventually restored to 100%, allowing us to continue our work to serve both councils in 2020.
If you have any questions regarding this annual report, please feel free to contact us. We are happy to discuss them with you. Please see the contact information below.
As President of the Court of Auditors, this is my final foreword. On behalf of the Court of Auditors, I would like to thank you all, the City Council, but also everyone inside and outside the official organization of Gemert-Bakel and Laarbeek who have contributed to the realization of the work of the Court of Auditors this year as well.

John Verhoeven,
President of the Court of Auditors of Gemert-Bakel - Laarbeek
Phone: 0492 378500
E-mail: Rekenkamer@gemert-bakel.nl

March 9, 2020

The Court of Auditors Gemert-Bakel - Laarbeek was composed as follows in 2019:

• Mr. J. Verhoeven (chairman)
• Mr. J. Sanders (member)
• Mr. C. Lommers (member) until April 21, 2019
• Mr. R. Malag (member) from August 22, 2019 in Laarbeek and from September 26, 2019 in Gemert-Bakel

The Court was officially supported by Ms. H. van der Heijden (secretary and deputy registrar of the municipality of Gemert-Bakel).

Contact

Mail: PO Box 10.000 5420 CA Gemert
Phone: 0492 378500
E-mail: rekenkamercommissie@gemert-bakel.nl

The Court of Auditors is an independent body whose duties and powers are described in the Gemeentewet and the Regulation Municipal Court of Auditors Gemert-Bakel and Laarbeek and Covenant Joint Court of Auditors Municipalities of Gemert-Bakel and Laarbeek adopted by the municipal councils. There are also rules of procedure.

The Court conducts research into the effects of municipal policy and the efficiency and effectiveness of municipal policy, municipal management and organization, the legality of municipal management, as well as the efficiency and effectiveness of institutions whose activities are wholly or substantially funded by the municipality.

There is a steering committee for the Court. The direction group is an inter-municipal advisory body consisting of at least two members from each council of the municipalities, supported by one of the council clerks. The regiegroep acts as a sounding board and contact body for the Court on behalf of the municipal councils.

The City Council may request a study from the Court through the direction group, with the Court being independent in its final choice of topic. Every year it draws up a research plan and annual report.

The results, conclusions and recommendations of investigations conducted are recorded in a draft report. This draft report is successively submitted to the officials and administrators involved in the investigation. They are given the opportunity to respond to it. After the responses have been processed, the Court of Audit presents the report to the City Council.

During the 2019 reporting year, the Court met 18 times for its own meetings, meetings with the steering committee and meetings with third parties in connection with the implementation of the investigations.

The following reports were released during 2019:

• Investigation into Subsidies (Gemert-Bakel and Laarbeek).
  In March, the Court of Audit published an investigation into subsidy policy. The objective of the study was to provide the councils with insight into the effectiveness of their own subsidy policy: do the results match the principles formulated when the policy was established. After all, society is changing rapidly. Citizens are becoming more outspoken and enterprising. Municipalities are stimulating society and facilitating more and more private initiatives. The role of local government is also changing, as it becomes clear that municipalities can no longer achieve everything themselves either. These developments are increasing the relevance of the subject of subsidy provision. Subsidies are increasingly becoming a means to achieve social effects, in addition to providing opportunities for organizations, institutions and associations. The challenge for the coming years is to distribute scarce resources in such a way that more can be achieved It remains important to realize that subsidies are a means to achieve policy goals and not an end in themselves. In the report we have provided a number of handles to further develop the subsidy policy.
• Preliminary investigation into information security (Gemert-Bakel and Laarbeek)
  In April, the Court of Auditors released a study on information security. This topic is becoming increasingly important for governments/municipalities. Loss of data (carriers), careless or improper use, manipulation of information and/or break-ins in information systems can cause great damage to governments, citizens and companies. Citizens, companies and organizations must be able to trust that data is in good hands with the government. Municipalities bear responsibility for information security and, in particular, the protection of personal data. With this study, the Court of Audit of Gemert-Bakel and Laarbeek wanted to provide insight into the current state of technical security of the data managed by the municipality. Not in order to use this to discuss the operational management within the council in detail, but rather to put the council in a position to better perform its framework-setting and controlling role with regard to this important subject. After all, the risks and impact in this area can be significant, and from the council's point of view, this report offers the opportunity to have a better discussion with the college. The study resulted in a series of concrete recommendations.
• Sustainability (Laarbeek).
  In August, the Court of Audit completed an investigation into steering and control in the municipality of Laarbeek. Many good initiatives in the field of sustainability have already been undertaken in Laarbeek. As a result, through an action-oriented approach, the municipality has succeeded in initiating many concrete initiatives in a short period of time, together with many stakeholders in society. During discussions with council members, however, we noticed that while a lot of information regarding the sustainability component comes to council members in various ways, (partly because of this) the overview was missed. The same also applied to the financial situation. What exactly does sustainability policy cost? What exactly does it bring in? 7 What part of the expenditure is revolving? The municipality of Laarbeek planned to bring a substantive focus to the sustainability policy in 2018/2019. The Court of Audit saw this as an excellent opportunity to use a study to help the municipal council in its framework-setting role, in steering (accelerating and/or adjusting) and to be able to monitor. The central research question in the study was: 'what information should the Laarbeek City Council have at its disposal, at what times and in what form, in order to be able to set well-founded frameworks and monitor sustainability? The research made several recommendations to improve and integrate the sustainability policy of the city council.
• Combating poverty and debt problems (Gemert-Bakel)
  Finally, in October, the Court of Auditors Committee conducted a study on poverty and debt issues. Given the growth of poverty among certain population groups and its possible adverse effects, an effective and efficient poverty policy is of great social importance. The objective of the study was to determine how the poverty policy in the municipality of Gemert-Bakel was organized and whether there is sufficient implementation of an effective and efficient poverty and debt policy? A special feature of this study was that its implementation ran approximately simultaneously with the municipality's new poverty policy plan. Together we worked to incorporate the research findings and recommendations as well as possible. Because the research was discussed during the 'budget council', it was decided to organize a special RKC-info in which sufficient time was allocated to include council and committee members in the results of the research. With the conclusions and recommendations of this study, we hope to have provided the council with more insight and tools for dealing with poverty and debt problems in the municipality of Gemert-Bakel.

Ongoing investigations

Regional investigation into functioning Omgevingsdienst Zuidoost-Brabant (ODZOB) (Gemert-Bakel, Laarbeek among others)
The Rekenkamer(commissions)s of Best, Eindhoven, Geldrop-Mierlo, Gemert-Bakel, Laarbeek, Nuenen c.s., Son en Breugel, Veldhoven and Waalre have jointly investigated the Omgevingsdienst Zuidoost Brabant. ODZOB, as a joint arrangement, has the task of ensuring a safe and healthy physical living environment together with its chain partners, the 21 regional municipalities and the province of North Brabant. The purpose of the study is to provide the city council with insight into the effectiveness and efficiency of ODZOB, the management and governance, future tasks and directions for improvement, among other things. This research was launched in the 4th quarter of 2019 and interviews among officials and administrators and council members took place. The survey results will be presented in April 2020.

The Court performs its work within the budget made available for it by the council. In the covenant joint Court of Audit municipalities of Gemert-Bakel and Laarbeek it has been agreed that the participating municipalities make available an annual budget of € 1.00 per inhabitant. The implementation costs of the Court will be charged to this budget. The committee has an official secretary and carries out the investigations together with hired external experts. In short, this results in the following financial accountability. The financial justification has been further explained to your representatives in the direction group.

Remainder 2019: €43,441.

Article 12, paragraph 4 of the Gemert-Bakel and Laarbeek Municipal Court Regulation 2015 states: If the budget is not spent in full, the remaining remains available to the Court, after consultation with the direction group and with a maximum of 50% of the annual budget. In consultation with the direction group it was decided to reserve the remainder of the 2019 annual budget, i.c. €26,223, for the benefit of the year 2020.