A Special Meeting of the Highland Council will take place in the Council Chamber, Council Headquarters, Glenurquhart Road, Inverness on Tuesday, 12 January 2010 at 10.30am.

Your attendance at the meeting is invited and I append a note of the business to be transacted.

Yours faithfully,

Michelle Morris
Assistant Chief Executive

Declarations of Interest – Members are asked to consider whether they have an interest to declare in relation to any item on the agenda for this meeting. Any Member making a declaration of interest should indicate whether it is a financial or non-financial interest and include some information on the nature of the interest. Advice may be sought from Officers prior to the meeting taking place.   

1. Calling of the Roll and Apologies for Absence

2. Exclusion of the Public

The Council is invited to resolve that, under Section 50A(4) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, the public should be excluded from the meeting during discussion of the following item on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 6 of Part 1 of Schedule 7A of the Act.

3. Caithness Heat and Power: Internal Audit Review

There is circulated to Members only Report No. HC/45/09 dated 4 January 2010 by the Head of Internal Audit and Risk Management which refers to the findings arising from the Internal Audit review of the governance arrangements in place regarding the Caithness Heat and Power project prior to the Council achieving control of the Company on 1 August 2008. The report also refers to the arrangements for considering the findings and highlights the options which are available to Audit Scotland for reporting on these to the Accounts Commission.

Members are invited to:-

(i) consider the Internal Audit report which will be tabled at the meeting;
(ii) agree the required actions to be taken;
(iii) note that a progress report on agreed actions will be provided to the
     Council and to Audit Scotland;
(iv) note the External Auditor’s options and arrangements for reporting the
     matter to the Accounts Commission; and
(v) note that Ministers and Audit Scotland will be notified of the findings and
     agreed actions of the Council.