SOCIAL WORK AND HOUSING COMMITTEE

 

WEDNESDAY, 24 JUNE 1998 - 3.00 pm

 

Present:- Provost Allan, Councillors Clocherty, O'Rourke, Jackson, McGhee, Nimmo, Mulholland, Rebecchi, Mitchell and Welch, Councillor O'Rourke, Convener, in the Chair.

 

In attendance:- The Chief Executive, the Director of Central Services, the Director of Finance, the Director of Legal Services,  the Director of Personnel Services and the Director of Social Work.

 

An apology for absence was intimated on behalf of Councillor Morrison (D).

 

The following paragraph is submitted for information only, having been dealt with under the powers delegated to the Committee.

 

   685      ALLEGED PAYMENT BY SOCIAL WORK TO ILLEGAL MONEY LENDER                                  685

 

SUBMITTED:  Report dated 18 June 1998 by the Assistant Chief Executive (Social and Community Development) on an investigation carried out by the Council's Internal Auditors into allegations of a payment made by the Social Work Department of the former Strathclyde Regional Council to an illegal money lender, setting out the findings of the report which were that, in making the payment, the Social Work Department had acted ultra vires, together with the action being taken to address the issue.  The report advised that in the course of the investigation, the Internal Audit Section had discovered another case which appeared to involve a similar payment to an illegal money lender

 and that the Chief Executive had requested that a full investigation of the case be carried out, the outcome of which would be reported to the Committee.

DECIDED:

(a)  That both the internal Social Work report and the report compiled by the Internal Audit Section of the Department of Finance be circulated to all Members of the Council;

(b)  That the action being taken by the Director of Social Work, the Assistant Chief Executive (Social and Community Development) and the Director of Legal Services as instructed by the Chief Executive be noted;

(c)  That the Committee note the recommendations of the Internal Audit Section of the Department of Finance as set out in Appendix 1 to the report which are now being implemented;

(d)  That the current position with regard to Internal Audit's investigation into the other case of an alleged payment to an illegal money lender be noted; and

(e)  That it be remitted to the Chief Executive to report to the Committee at the earliest possible date both in relation to the outcome of the actions taken as a result of the findings of the Internal Audit Section's investigation into the original case and the outcome of the investigations into the second case referred to in the report.