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CAIRNGORMS NATIONAL PARK AUTHORITY FINANCE COMMITTEE 
Paper 5 27/08/04 

CAIRNGORMS NATIONAL PARK AUTHORITY 
FINANCE COMMITTEE

Title: FINANCIAL FRAMEWORK GOVERNING THE 
NATIONAL PARK 

Prepared by: ANDY RINNING, INTERIM HEAD OF CORPORATE 
SERVICES 

Purpose 

To update the Committee of the formal arrangements required between the National Park 
Authority and the Scottish Executive in relation to finance related matters. Annex 3 contains 
the final draft of the Scottish Executive Management Statement and Financial Memorandum. 

Recommendations 

• That committee members note the content of the document and agree to its adoption 
and submission to the Scottish Executive. 

Executive Summary 

As an Executive NDPB the financial arrangements of the Park Authority are governed by the 
provisions contained in a Management Statement and Financial Memorandum to be agreed 
between the Park Authority and the Scottish Executive. This document is prepared by the 
Scottish Executive in line with guidance contained in the Scottish Public Finance Manual. 
Once agreed between the Park Authority and the Scottish Executive it forms the framework 
within which CNPA’s internal procedures operate. These procedures will incorporate 
guidance and instruction to staff on such functions as authorising payments, ordering of 
goods and services and monitoring of budgets. 

FINANCIAL FRAMEWORK GOVERNING THE NATIONAL PARK
 
Discussion 

1. An earlier draft of the Management Statement and Financial Memorandum was 
considered by the Finance Committee at its meeting held on 7 November 2003. Members 
noted the content of the document and agreed that a final version be brought to the 
Finance Committee for adoption. 

2. The current version of the document takes account of issues such as pensions and 
insurance and other minor issues of a technical and editorial nature that had not been 
resolved at the time of the first draft. We are now content that this version meets the 
overall requirements between the authority and the Scottish Executive. 

3. We do however have reservations over some of the specific limits on delegated authority 
contained in Financial Memorandum Annex, particularly in relation to the level applied to 
consultancies. We consider the level has been set too low for our current and future 
needs and results in our seeking approval from the Scottish Executive for expenditure on 
a frequent basis rather than in specific cases. This is a matter we can discuss with the 
Scottish Executive to reach agreement but in the meantime we can agree the overall 
framework document to allow formal procedures to operate. 

4. The approved version of this document will be made available on the internet to meet our 
obligations under open government and the regulations on Freedom of Information. 

Andy Rinning 
20 August 2004
AndyRinning@cairngorms .co.uk