The Labour group at Monmouthshire County Council has tabled a motion calling for cabinet members of the Council to produce a comprehensive annual report of their work over the past year reports STEPHEN PENN.

The motion was put forward to compel cabinet members and chairmen of committees to place on formal record what they believe to be the strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities of the services they are responsible for.

A Welsh Audit Office report last year highlighted that "challenge and scrutiny of performance was patchy" and cited a lack of formal appraisals between cabinet members and senior officers and expressed concern that some cabinet members seemed unaware of their responsibilities and did not scrutinise officers effectively.

Leader of the Labour Group, Councillor Dimitri Batrouni, said, "The Labour group has grown increasingly concerned that certain cabinet members seemed unfamiliar with key policies and kept deferring simple questions to senior officers.

"We strongly feel cabinet members should be made more accountable for decisions being made and the performance of services under their control.

"Regardless of who's in the cabinet, there should be a formal mechanism where they report to other elected members and public the performance of the areas they are responsible for."

However in a council meeting held last Thursday, council leader Councillor Councillor Fox made an amendment to the motion, to say that all councillors not just executives should produce reports to be made publicly accessible to ensure that all councillors are doing their jobs effectively.

This amendment was met with criticism, as some councillors, who believed that the reports from cabinet members and chairmen of committees would be brought for discussion at council and argued that to do this for all councillors would be unfeasible.

However it was noted that the motion did not directly state that these reports would be brought to council, only that they would be published, and after a vote the amendment was successful.

Councillor Batrouni noted his disappointment at the cabinet members' unwillingness to be put up to scrutiny from the members.

Councillor Batrouni said, "As members of the cabinet, we should be ensuring that they are held accountable. There are members of the cabinet who we feel are not performing efficiently, and have to rely on officers when questioned about any aspect of their portfolio.

"To have them dismiss this, and simply revert back to enforcing simple Welsh Government Policy via paperwork with no consequences is not fair for the people they represent. I am disappointed at their unwillingness to put themselves up for this, and to amend the motion in such a way."