Agenda item

Report of the Corporate Director for Finance and Resources

Glenn Hammons, the Interim Finance Lead – Technical Finance, provided an update on the Statement of Accounts. The report provided a formal update on the progress the Council was making with its Statement of Accounts relating to 2019/20 to 2022/23. The following information was highlighted:

a)  Four years of accounts are yet to be finalised and audited.

b)  The Improvement and Assurance Board (IAB) has issued a directive that the outstanding issues with these accounts should be resolved by 30 September 2023.

c)  All queries from Grant Thornton relating to the 2019/20 accounts have been responded to by the Council and that a revised draft set of accounts have been submitted incorporating any of the agreed adjustments made since the previous version of the draft accounts were submitted.

d)  Grant Thornton are continuing with their audit work in relation to the 2019/20 accounts.

e)  There is an expectation that by the end of November 2023 there will be a draft set of accounts for 2020/21, and good progress is being made on subsequent years.

f)  The Council has recruited temporary staffing resources to support the Technical Finance Team with the production of the accounts.

g)  The Government is looking at proposals on a national level to deal with backlogs in accounts and the Council is expecting to be consulted on this shortly. This could affect the proposed timeline in resolving the outstanding Statement of Accounts.

h)  Grant Thornton have raised a number of queries in relation to the 2019/20 accounts. The volume of additional queries, clarification questions and the resulting changes to the accounts for that year have been greater than anticipated and has impacted the timeline for the 2019/20 accounts and subsequent years. The timeline could be further impacted by any additional queries and government proposals.

During the discussion and in response to questions from the Committee, the following points were made:

a)  During the last 6-9 months the resourcing has improved in the finance team and the External Auditor confirmed that queries were responded to enthusiastically and in a timely manner.

b)  In late September Grant Thornton had requested further information about the internal controls assessments undertaken by Ernst & Young (EY). Access to the working papers were not provided by EY and so alternative procedures were conducted by Grant Thornton based on the evidence shared by the Council to EY. That work is now complete.

c)  The External Auditor, will be meeting with the Council’s Section 151 Officer to discuss the completion plans for the audits. The External Auditor is committed to complete the audits as soon as possible.

d)  The CIPFA review which identified issues with charging from the General Fund to the Housing Revenues Account (HRA) was discussed, and as part of the audit process due diligence had taken place , this work was ongoing as part of the accounts process.

The Chair thanked Grant Thornton and Officers for providing assurance to the Committee and the commitment to complete the accounts as soon as possible.

Resolved that the Committee note the current position with the Statement of Accounts for the years 2019/20 through to 2022/23.