Issue - meetings

The Interim Director of Finance presented the Finance Recovery Plan Update. In doing so the following was highlighted:

·       This report was presented at every Audit, Standards and Governance Committee meeting and set out a high level update on the current situation in respect of the Finance Recovery Plan and the deliverables contained within the Plan. The main deliverables were outlined as follows:

o   To rectify the TechOne system

o   To rectify the cash receipting backlog

o   Delivery of the 2020-21, 21/22 and 22/23 Statemnet of Accounts.

·       Since the last Finance Recovery report was considered on 12^th July 2023 the following work had been carried out:

1.     A draft Outturn Report for 2022/23 had been presented to Cabinet.

2.     The draft 2022/23 Revenue Outturn Estimates had been presented to DLUHC.

3.     The draft 2022/23 Capital Outturn Estimates had been presented to DLUHC.

4.     A Quarter 1 Finance and Performance Report 2023/24 had been presented to Cabinet.

5.     Joint work had continued with External Audit on providing evidence of control balances at the time of the transfer from eFin to TechOne on 8^th February 2021. External Audit had validation routines for theyear 2020/21 financial year and were in the process of reviewing this data.  However, it was noted that the Council were still to provide the Period 0 data.  As part of this process, the Council had extended the eFin contract for three years to comply with legislation and allow the Period 0 data to be extracted.

6.     The 2021/22 Housing Benefits Audit had been signed off.

7.     Financial Awareness Training with Managers had been carried out and Quarter 2 monitoring would be available through TechOne.

8.     Budget Management Training for Managers (including use of TechOne).

9.     Monthly Accounts Payable Training.

10. A Head of Management Accountancy had been engaged on 20^th September 2023 and two temporary Technical Accountants started work at the Council in September 2023.

11. The Council upgrade to the TechOne system had taken place in July 2023. It was reported that the Council was now using the most recent version of the TechOne system.

12. The Financial Compliance Report, setting out movement in the Financial Recovery Plan, had been reviewed by the Audit, Standards and Governance Committee in July and September 2023.

Officers stated that currently there were significant resource issues within the audit sector, and this would inevitably impact on the time taken in completing the Statement of Accounts for the majority of local authorities, as had been highlighted earlier in the meeting.

In terms of the issues experienced with the Cash Receipting module within the TechOne system, it was reported that it was hoped that any backlog within the system would be cleared by December 2023.

Officers reported that key legislative deliverables including the VAT Returns and the revenue Outturns for 2020-21 and 2021-22 had recently been submitted to Central Government. The final Capital Outturn and draft Revenue Outturn returns could not be submitted until the accounts had been audited.

Further  ...  view the full minutes text for item 41