Agenda item

To consider the report of the Interim Chief Finance Officer (copy enclosed).

The Committee considered the report of the Interim Chief Finance Officer presenting a number of external audit documents for review. The Officer presented the report before referring to the external auditors to provide further information in relation to their reports (appendices 1 – 3).

·                International Standards on Auditing (ISA) 260 Audit report (Appendix 1 to the report)
This report aimed to ensure that auditors communicated significant findings from the audit to those responsible for governance. An updated version of this appendix had been circulated prior to the meeting.

It was noted that due to a number of factors, including the completion of the 2022 / 23 financial year audit, the external auditors had not been able to progress significant volumes of work. All risk assessments had been completed along with planning work in order to allow an audit opinion to be issued. The audit disclosure checklist had been completed along with basis casting and consistency checks of the financial statements. Therefore, a disclaimed audit opinion was being issued on the 2023 / 24 financial statements. It was noted that page 46 of the report pack outlined the rationale behind this.

·                Annual Audit report for the financial year 2023 / 24 (Appendix 2)

This report evaluated how effectively an organisation used its resources to achieve its objectives. An updated version of this appendix had been circulated prior to the meeting.

This was required to be published alongside the Council’s financial statement on its website and provided a high-level overview of the findings of both external audit’s financial statement audit along with more rationale and detailed assessment of the findings of Value for Money (VFM) work. It was noted that external audit had raised a recommendation in response to significant weakness detailed within the report and a management response to this was set out on page 96 of the report pack. Members were informed that the rationale for the significant weakness was in respect of the Council’s delivery of the draft 2023 / 24 financial statements and external audit being unable to progress the 2023 / 24 external audit due to what they believed were constraints within the Council’s finance team.

·                Audit Plan report for 2023 / 24 (Appendix 3)

This report set out the plan for the accounts audit and it was noted that this was normally presented before the audit took place, however due to constraints of backstop dates issued by the Government this report was being presented at this time. The Terms of Reference of this Committee included a requirement to review the external auditor’s opinion on the Statement of Accounts of the Council.

It was highlighted that page 103 of the report pack outlined the significant risk areas for the 2023 / 24 report which external audit had identified through its planning and risk work along with enquiries with the Council as well as knowledge of the wider Local Government sector. Three areas of significant risk had been identified and the external auditors took Members through each of them.

In response to a question raised by the Independent Person, regarding the value fully depreciated within the 2024 accounts, the Interim Chief Finance Officer advised that the Council’s technical accountant had prepared the financial statements, and he would therefore provide the requested information outside of the meeting.

The Chairperson moved the recommendations set out in the report. These were duly seconded and agreed.

RESOLVED

(i)             That Members considered:

·   the ISA 260 Audit Report for 2023 / 24 at Appendix 1 to the report;

·   the Annual Audit Report for 2023 / 24 (Appendix 2 to the report)

·   the Audit Plan Report for 2023 / 24 (Appendix 3 to the report;

(ii)            That delegated authority be granted to both the Chairperson of the Performance, Governance and Audit Committee and Chief Finance Officer (Section 151) to liaise directly with the external auditors, KPMG, to facilitate the signing of the accounts and its subsequent publication online.