Commentary on Sections Part 6: Performance and Governance Of Principal Councils Chapter 1: Performance, Performance Assessments and Intervention Section 89 – Duty of principal council to keep its performance under review
445.This section places a continuing duty on a principal council to consider the extent to which it is achieving the matters set out in paragraphs (a) and (b) of subsection (1), and the extent to which its governance is effective to enable it to achieve those matters.
446.The matters set out in subsection (1) are referred to in this Chapter as “the performance requirements”.
447.Those matters are intended to encapsulate the essence of how a principal council is expected to exercise its functions, use its resources and generally govern itself.
448.In particular, in relation to the use of resources, the performance requirements reflect one of the matters that the Auditor General is required by section 17(2)(d) of the 2004 Act to satisfy themselves of in auditing a principal council’s accounts; namely that the council “has made proper arrangements for securing economy, efficiency and effectiveness in its use of resources”.
449.If the Welsh Ministers issue guidance to principal councils about the performance requirements or the exercise of any functions of a principal council under Chapter 1, principal councils must have regard to that guidance.