PROCEDURE Banking. Number: G 1904 Date Published: 8 May 2014

Transcription

1 1.0 Summary of Changes This is a new procedure which details the collection and handling of all income owed to Essex Police. This includes the handling of cash seized under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA). All staff involved in the collection of income should be made aware of this procedure and have access to this guidance. 2.0 What this Procedure is about There is a limited range of activities where it is appropriate for Essex Police to make charges to individuals or organisations to recover costs. These include the provision of information, licences and private hire. Historically, processes for handling income have varied between policing areas. This procedure is intended to achieve consistency across the Force ensuring that income is processed correctly and that different tasks involved in income collection are carried out by separate members of staff, as far as possible, to enable the records of income collected to be verified by more than one person. Compliance with this procedure and any governing policy is mandatory. 3.0 Detail the Procedure 3.1 Control Objectives Controls over income collected are designed to ensure that all income owed to Essex Police is: Charged for all goods and services and is charged at the appropriate rate; Received promptly and by the due date; Properly recorded and coded to the general ledger; Banked regularly into the Police and Crime Commissioner for Essex Revenue Account; Fraud and irregularities are prevented. 3.2 General Income Controls All staff involved in the collection of income should be made aware of the control objectives and have access to this guidance. The division of duties should be made among staff to ensure that the different tasks involved in income collection are carried out by separate officers, as far as possible, to enable the records of income collected to be verified by more than one officer. Income should be monitored using management information. Page 1 of 12

2 3.3 Collection of Cash and Cheque Income Staff dealing with incoming cheques should ensure that: The cheque has been signed; The cheque is made payable to Police and Crime Commissioner for Essex; The cheque is dated correctly and is not post-dated, undated or out of date; The words and figures shown on the cheque agree; Any alteration to the cheque is initialled by the drawer. A receipt should be issued if requested. Staff dealing with incoming cash should ensure that: A receipt is issued; All notes are checked for forgeries Recording/Paying-in of Income An immediate record should be made on the summary and analysis sheet of the income received, detailing the amount of the payment, the payee, whether it is cash or cheque, description of the type of income and receipt number if applicable. Where staff numbers allow, all income must be counted and bagged up by a different officer from the one who collected it, then transferred to a third officer responsible for banking. Reconciliation of income received should be carried out to supporting documents, e.g. receipts issued etc. When paying cash or cheques into the Police and Crime Commissioner for Essex Revenue Account - Lloyds Bank paying-in books, issued by the Exchequer Team in the Business Centre, must be used. The paying-in slip must contain the following details: A breakdown of the total monies to be paid in must be entered onto both copies of the credit slips; Details of cheques paid in must be entered on the reverse of the paying-in counterfoil and totalled. Page 2 of 12

3 All monies paid to Essex Police must be allocated as quickly as possible. To avoid delays in monies reaching the budgets the following procedure must be followed: The summary and analysis income template must be completed the same day as the monies are banked. This contains details of all the codes to be credited; A VAT indicator must be entered for each amount listed; Details of the policing area, paying in slip (giro) number and date together with the total must also be entered before ing to the Exchequer Team in the Business Centre for processing Income Received in the Post When opened, post should be stamped to indicate which establishment has received it. Details of all income received should be recorded immediately by the Geographical Support Assistant. Details required are amount, type of payment and name of customer. Post-dated and/or incorrectly made out cheques should be noted as such, in an income log. Where a cheque received is incorrectly made out (e.g. not signed/dated, wrong amount, words and figures different, wrong payee), it should be returned to the originator with a note of the error and request to return the cheque amended. This action should be noted in the income log and the officer concerned should ensure follow up to resolve the outstanding income. Details of any income forwarded to other departments for processing such as payment for copies of accident reports and data protection records should also be recorded in the income log. Essex Police would not normally expect to accept post-dated cheques. If a post-dated cheque is received contact the Revenue Manager who will decide what action to take. All staff who handle income receipts by post, should ensure that they maintain adequate records to provide an audit trail to banking. Any exceptional items should be recorded and the advice of the Revenue Manager sought. 3.4 Security of Stored Income Income must be held securely in a safe. Custody of safe keys should be restricted to the smallest number of staff practicable and should be kept on their person. Safes must be locked at all times between deposit and banking of money. Any loss of cash from a safe must be reported to the Revenue Manager who will determine the action to be taken. This may include referring to the Professional s Department as appropriate for investigation of the circumstances. Page 3 of 12

4 3.5 Banking Banking should be carried out fortnightly or more often if the total amount of income exceeds 1,000. All cash and cheques received must be banked promptly. Staff should never cash personal cheques from cash income. Any cash received as lost/found/detained property is also subject to these banking rules. Cash seized and processed as Proceeds of Crime is dealt with separately under the Policy for Proceeds of Crime Act (see B 0200 Policy Proceeds of Crime and S 0210 Procedure POCA Cash Seizure). Cheques not accepted by the bank should be recorded on their return and the reason for non-acceptance established. Cheques not accepted by the bank for any other reason, will be forwarded, with an explanatory note to the Revenue Manager, who will determine the action required. Security of staff taking money to the bank must be a prime concern. If possible two members of staff should take the income to the bank. Staff should avoid regular visits to the bank at the same time on the same day. 3.6 Refunds All requests for refunds must be in writing and must give the reason for refunding the payment. No refunds should be given in respect of cheques until it is certain that they have been cleared by the bank. Clearance of cheques should be checked with the Exchequer Team in the Business Centre for confirmation. The officer approving the payment of any refunds should not be the officer who received the income initially and should check to ensure the refund is appropriate, including clearance of the cheque. Full details of any refund made must be recorded and if the refund is made in cash the recipient must sign for it. 3.7 Raising a Customer Invoice Wherever possible, payment should be collected before the service is provided. This can mean payment in advance or at the point of delivery and ensures that payment will be received for the service supplied. Where there are several charges for the same customer these should be amalgamated on to one invoice, where appropriate, in order to reduce administration costs. Page 4 of 12

5 In order to raise a customer invoice, the electronic invoice request form available through the Business Centre home page must be completed and submitted with supporting documentation. Any requests received without supporting attachments will be returned to the originator. Income must be coded to the correct General Ledger code. The majority of these will be income codes but there may be instances where the income is coded to offset expenditure. Any cancellation of an invoice must be authorised by a suitably independent person not involved in the raising of the original invoice. The reasons for cancellation must be adequately documented, signed and dated. In order to establish if VAT should be levied, refer to section 3.9 relating to VAT where a list of services provided by Essex Police with the appropriate VAT rate is detailed. A segregation of duties is required to ensure that more than one person is responsible for the following duties: Raising a customer invoice; Collecting and recording income received; Banking; Reconciling records of income collected to income banked Potential Bad Debts When a debt is identified as potentially a bad debt (usually where it remains unpaid after three months), it should be reported to the Revenue Manager, together with a description of the efforts made to secure payment. The Revenue Manager will consider the appropriate action. Any recourse to legal action will be placed in the hands of the Force Solicitor for action Writing off Losses When a loss is to be written off as an uncollectable debt the following authorisation is required: Where the debt has an individual value of: less than Revenue Manager; 500-2,999 - as above plus Chief Finance Officer of the Chief Constable; 3,000-9,999 - As above plus Director of Support Services; greater than 10,000 - Police and Crime Commissioner. Page 5 of 12

6 As soon as it is decided that a debt has become non-recoverable, the individual making that judgement should notify the Chief Finance Officer of the Chief Constable. The notification will include details of the original debt, how it was incurred and the reasons for it being regarded as non-recoverable. In cases requiring approval of the Police and Crime Commissioner, the report will also need to identify any action taken or recommended to prevent the circumstances recurring. The Director of Support Services may also require similar information in relation to write offs requiring his approval Reconciliation of Income Received to Invoices Raised It is essential that income received is reconciled with the invoices raised, as well as other supporting documentation, the bank account and General Ledger records, so that outstanding accounts can be identified and followed up. The Exchequer Team in the Business Centre have a routine follow up procedure for outstanding debts which makes it imperative that income is properly recorded against the correct customer account. To ensure that payment is allocated to the customer invoice, any payments received locally by the Geographical Support Assistant relating to customer invoices must be forwarded to the Exchequer Team in the Business Centre. 3.8 Banking of Cash Seized under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) The movement of seized cash is to be kept to a minimum and all movement must be recorded on the Property Management System. For movements of cash in excess of 50,000 the Insurance Section in the Business Centre must be contacted before it can be moved. This is to ensure that adequate insurance cover and controls are in place whilst moving large sums of cash between police sites. Insurance levels applicable to the storage of POCA seizures vary between police sites and the amounts covered are as follows: Business Centre 250,000 to 500,000; LPA/24hour occupied station up to 250,000; Non 24hr occupied station up to 50,000. Any seizures held which exceed these amounts must be reported to the Insurance Section in the Business Centre so that the insurers can be notified. Seizures exceeding 500,000 can be brought to the Business Centre and the necessary insurance arrangements will be made. Page 6 of 12

7 Once the seized cash has been recorded on the property management system by the officer, it will be deposited in a holding safe. When the Property Officer logs into the system at the start of the day a check is made to see if any cash has been deposited in the holding safe. The cash is then removed from the holding safe by the Property Officer and moved to the property safe. When it is agreed by the relevant Financial Investigator that the cash can be banked, depending on the value of the cash seized, it is either taken to the Geographical Support Assistant by the Property Officer or to the Business Centre by two police officers. Banking will be arranged as soon as possible and the deposit details are then given to the Property Officer to update the property system Preparing the Cash for Banking Cash is counted in the presence of an officer and a minimum of two members of the Exchequer Team. A receipt is issued for the total of the cash and given to the officer. The banking details are given to the Business Support Assistant - Finance in the Business Centre. Before processing the cash, instruction should be sought from the officer regarding the need to bank individual exhibits separately. If this is required the following procedure must be followed: 1. A sum of cash is machine-counted, any counterfeit notes removed and a first receipt slip is produced by the machine; 2. The money is then re- counted by the machine and a second receipt slip is produced; 3. After ensuring that the totals on the two receipts are the same they are initialled by the Exchequer Team and the officer, clipped together and placed with the counted cash; 4. Each amount of cash is processed in this way and the counts relating to that particular exhibit are added together and the machine prints off a receipt for the total amount to be banked relative to that exhibit; 5. All counterfeit notes are to be placed in a sealed bag relative to the evidential exhibit they came from and placed in the property store, exhibit ref as per the original exhibit but ending.../counterfeit notes; 6. At the conclusion of all relevant exhibit counts, all monies are to remain in their exhibited individual amounts. Contrary to normal cash handling procedures they cannot be collectively brought together and banked in the same bags, the reason being that if any further notes are not accepted by the bank due to being counterfeit the officer will need to know what exhibit the deduction relates to; Page 7 of 12

8 7. Exchequer Team must contact the Lloyds relationship manager before organising the banking of the cash to notify him of the need to bank an ad hoc seizure of money. Pradip needs the following before any deposits are made: o Date deposit to be made; o Method of deposit i.e. G4S collection and delivery or police officers delivering the cash to a particular bank for deposit; o Amount(s) being banked; o Currency types i.e. Sterling, euros, dollars etc.; o Seal numbers of the bags containing the cash; o Account(s) names and numbers to which money to be paid into Restoration/Returning of the Cash If seized cash is to be returned to the person from whom it was seized, the Officer in Charge will request the return of the money via the Financial Investigation Unit. The Property Officer will provide the necessary details to the Business Support Assistant - Finance at the Business Centre who will arrange for the required payment to be made by either cheque or bank transfer. Return in cash will only be made as an exception and only for low value payments (see S 0210 Procedure - POCA Cash Seizure). 3.9 Charging of VAT on Customer Invoices Value Added Tax (VAT) is a tax that is charged on most goods and services. The Corporate Finance Department in the Business Centre has a legal requirement to submit monthly VAT returns to HM Revenue & Customs. The information entered on the returns is broken down into two main areas: Input tax Output tax VAT paid on supplies and services received by Essex Police; VAT charged on supplies and services provided by Essex Police VAT Rates VAT can be applied at a variety of rates, as shown below: Currently 20% (17.5% until 3 rd January 2011) Lower Zero Currently 5% used for domestic fuel & power VAT is charged but at a Zero rate Page 8 of 12

9 Exempt Non-Business VAT is not charged Applies to most of the goods and services supplied by Essex Police. Note: The difference between exempt and zero-rated goods and services: Zero Rated Specific goods & services are counted as taxable supplies but VAT is not added to the selling prices as the VAT rate is 0%. VAT can generally be reclaimed on purchases relating to those sales; Exempt There are some goods & services that are exempt from VAT. These are not taxable supplies and VAT on related purchases cannot usually be claimed back Output Tax Output tax is VAT charged on supplies and services supplied by Essex Police. The majority of services are non-business and are therefore not subject to VAT. But there are some supplies which could be either non-business or standard rated depending on the exact nature of the supply. Some examples are shown below. If further information is required refer to section Where to go for Help. EXAMPLE OF INCOME Accident Reports & Photographs Exception : Photographs supplied for general interest Prison Escort Service Seconded Police Officers To other Forces under a Statutory Obligation Seconded Police Officers No Statutory Obligation Seconded Police Staff VAT RATE Page 9 of 12

10 Boarding Up Charges Where Essex Police contracts directly with the boardingup contractors following an incident and these costs are recharged to the property owners or occupants. If the property owners or occupants have requested Essex Police assistance in boarding up the premises. The above situations must be distinguished from where Essex Police has caused the damage but has not commissioned remedial work. Witness Expenses - Charge to Crown Prosecution Service Refer to Corporate Accounting Flying Time for Helicopter - Assisting Other Police Forces Underwater Search Unit - Assisting Other Police Forces Fingerprinting Services Immigration Service Housing Immigration Prisoners Helicopter Fuel Private Hire of Police Officers Supply of Advertising Space in The Law or Personnel Bulletins Sale of Police Clothing - To Other Police Forces Sale of Surplus Equipment e.g. Mobile Phones, Computer Equipment, Furniture etc. The accuracy of the VAT returns and the efficient collection of income due to Essex Police, rely on the appropriate VAT rate being applied. When processing Sales orders please ensure that the correct VAT rate is used Do s and Don ts Do: Raise customer invoices where possible; Collect payment in advance if possible. If the charges relate to the hire of police officers/police staff payment in advance must be made in all instances; Communicate income procedures and ensure access to written guidance; Carry out reconciliations at fortnightly intervals; Make any alterations to records clearly; If in doubt seek advice. Page 10 of 12

11 Don t: Take cash without issuing an official receipt; Take cash home for any reason; Use cash collected as income to make any type of payment; Use income to cash personal cheques; Dispose of any prime documents; Go it alone, when in doubt seek advice Where to go for Help Revenue Manager Extension Business Centre Team Leader Extension Exchequer Team Extension /166108/ Corporate Accounting (VAT queries) Extension Equality Impact Assessment This procedure has been assessed with regard to an Equality Impact Assessment. As a result of this assessment it has been graded as having a low potential impact as the proposals in this procedure would have no potential or actual differential impact on grounds of race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, transgender, disability, age, religion or belief or sexual orientation. 5.0 Risk Assessment If this procedure is not followed there are two main risks to the organisation: Revenue could be lost through not charging for goods and services correctly; and Staff handling cash could be vulnerable to allegations of misconduct. Other risks could include financial penalties imposed by HMRC for not charging VAT correctly. 6.0 Consultation Unison / Federation Diversity / H&S Business Centre / Property Officers Page 11 of 12

12 7.0 Monitoring and Review This document will be reviewed in March annually by the Revenue Manager to ensure that it is updated with any changes in processes resulting from the implementation of SAP and that it remains fit for purpose. Links to other documents within this procedure will need to be reviewed to ensure that they are still accurate and relevant. 8.0 Governing Force policy. Related Force policies or related procedures B 0200 Policy Proceeds of Crime S 0210 Procedure POCA Cash Seizure 9.0 Other source documents, e.g. legislation, Authorised Professional Practice (APP), Force forms, partnership agreements (if applicable) None Page 12 of 12