WARNING - By their nature, text files cannot include scanned images and tables. The process of converting documents to text only, can cause formatting changes and misinterpretation of the contents can sometimes result. Wherever possible you should refer to the pdf version of this document. CAIRNGORMS NATIONAL PARK AUTHORITY Finance Committee Paper 3 23/02/07 CAIRNGORMS NATIONAL PARK AUTHORITY FINANCE COMMITTEE FOR DISCUSSION Title: OUTTURN FOR THE TEN MONTHS TO JANUARY 2007 Prepared by: Denby Pettitt, Finance Manager Purpose To provide Members with an update and information on the outturn for the ten months to January 31, 2007. Recommendations That the Committee: a) note the draft outturn for the ten months to January 31, 2006. Executive Summary a) Annex 1 shows the Income and Expenditure account for the ten months to the end of January. A commentary is also included on each line, the accounts and commentary in this format are sent each month to Finance Committee members. b) At the end of January we were underspent by �327,000 against budget. Of this �263,000 related to the Operational Plan (23% under budget) and �64,000 to Core and non-cash costs (3% under budget) c) The Q3 Operational Plan Review has been completed with Heads of Group and Core costs reviewed in light of actual expenditure for the first ten months. Included in this review have been salary costs on the assumption that the Scottish Ministers and staff both approve the 2006-07 pay remit. d) Current forecasts show a surplus of �11,000 for the year but this requires over �800,000 Operational Plan spending in the next two months. As always we are monitoring Operational Plan expenditure especially carefully in the run up to the year end in order that we maximise the use of our resource Allocation as any unused funds cannot be carried forward to the next financial year. OUTTURN FOR THE TEN MONTHS TO JANUARY 2007 - FOR DISCUSSION Overview 1. Annex 1 includes the latest Income and Expenditure account together with commentary on each line which focuses on actual income or expenditure against budget. 2. The budget was revised at the end of September and variances are now reported against the revised budget. 3. Annex 2 shows how the Authority is performing against agreed financial targets which are reported to the Board quarterly in the Balanced Scorecard Summary. Grant in Aid drawdown and expenditure patterns 4. The chart below summarises the monthly GIA drawdowns for the last two financial years, with 2006/07 on the left and 2005/06 grant on the right of each month�s columns. This provides a broad overview of the Authority�s expenditure pattern over the course of these two years. CNPA Grant in Aid drawdown (Graph not available in full text format) 5. The above chart shows that for all but three months of the current year we have drawn down more Grant in Aid than in the equivalent month of 2005-06. In order to maximise our use of Grant in Aid we now need to draw down and spend �603,000 in March which is an improvement on the �959,000 drawn down in March 2006. 6. The chart below shows the cumulative expenditure over the course of the year compared with budget and last year�s expenditure profile. CNPA Cumulative expenditure percentages (Graph not available in full text format) * budgeted expenditure in October has been reduced to reflect changes in budget phasing from the mid-year review 7. Expenditure continues to be ahead of last year�s level, both in monetary and percentage terms, although we are under spent by �327,000 in the current year compared with the revised budget, presented to the Committee in October. Forecast year end position 8. The Q3 Operational Plan Review was completed with individual Heads of Group in January although this still has to be formally ratified by the Management Team. The forecast has been updated to reflect the latest spending plans which all need to be completed by the end of March. 9. Similarly, the forecast for Board fees has been updated to reflect the known 1.75% increase. The forecast for staff salaries reflects the anticipated increase which has still to be approved by Scottish Ministers. 10. A further reduction in the year end spend forecast is due to staff salary costs, which assuming the Scottish Ministers give final approval to the pay remit and this is accepted by staff, are forecast to be �92,000 below the initial budget. This is primarily due to holding a number of posts vacant pending a review of the Authority�s staffing requirements in moving into the delivery phase of the National Park Plan. 11. Taking account of the above, we are forecasting a surplus for the year of �11,000. As in previous years, the run up to the year end requires careful management of expenditure in order to maximise our use of our annual Resource Allocation from the Scottish Executive. Inevitably, some expenditure plans slip even at this late stage, and in light of this, we are continuing to look for new spend that may be completed by the end of March whilst still offering Value for Money. Denby Pettitt 9 February 2007 CNPA Income & Expenditure account (January 2007) (Table not available in full text format) Commentary (a) revision. (b) Planning fees invoiced for 2006 are �44,110 which is less than the budget of �62,000 due to the reduction in number of call-ins. Invoices have already been raised for these amounts and income will be booked when received. (c) Non-cash transactions represent notional costs that we are 'charged' by the Scottish Executivebased on theassets we useand thedepreciation chargebased on previous capital expenditure. (d) We received confirmation from Scottish Executive that an increase of 1.75% is to be applied to Board fees from April 2006. This has been subsequently approved by the CNPA Staffing and Recruitment Committee and will be paid in February's payroll run although we have already accrued for the cost of this. (e) The staff's pay award for 2006-07 has not been approved yet although we have accrued for the likely cost. It is hoped that this too will be finally approved by Scottish Ministers in time for February's payroll. The forecast for the year has also been adjusted to take account of the likely full year cost. (f) Other staff costs are slightly below budget (�21,000; 11%). The full year forecast has been reduced by �30,000 to reflect this (mainly reductions in recruitment and relocation costs). (g) Office costs exceed budget by �43,000: 16%), this is mainly due to two reasons. Firstly, there are a number of small computing purchases for which capital Grant in Aid can be used, this would also utilise the underspend on capex that is currently �25,000 (see below). Secondly, there are a number of utility invoices (totalling �14,000) that have been received and paid in advance of the budget provision that is contained in March 2007 accounts. No impact on full year. (h) See (g) above. (i) Although Operational Plan expenditure has slipped in December and January the Q3 Operational Plan review completed in January confirmed that expenditure by the year end is expected to be over �1.6 million which is in line with the initial budget. (j) Non-cash costs mainly in line with budget. CNPA Balanced Scorecard Performance Measures -Finance (Table not available in full text format)