Agenda item

Grant Thornton Update Report

Meeting of Audit, Standards and Governance Committee, Thursday 16th July 2015 6.00 p.m. (Item 14/15)

Minutes:

The Committee was asked to note the latest Grant Thornton Update report to June 2015.

As Councillor C. Hotham, as a substitute Member, had not had prior sight of the supplementary pack containing a copy of this report Members agreed to hold a brief adjournment at 7.28pm.

The meeting reconvened at 7.30pm.

Members were advised that the report provided updates on progress achieved in relation to a number of areas of external audit work, highlighted areas for Members' attention and provided an opportunity for Members to consider areas of topical interest to local government.

The following matters were highlighted during consideration of this report:

· A new financial ledger had been introduced during the year. This had led to some delays in terms of completing various processes.

· Due to the risks associated with the new ledger there was a need for external auditors to review the system.

· Additional tests would be required to secure assurance that the new ledger was effective. This testing represented additional work for the external auditors which would be subject to additional fees.

· There had been a restructure of the Council’s Finance Team and turnover of key staff.

· The statement of accounts had not been submitted by the deadline set by Government. In part this had been due to the turnover in specialist staff. Due to the timing of this occurrence and difficulties recruiting to posts a decision had been taken to recruit a team of technical accountants to provide support on a temporary basis.

· References within the report to support that had been received by the Finance team from consultants should actually have been referring to these Technical Accountants. Members were assured that no consultants had actually been involved in this process.

· Further information was requested regarding the financial costs involved in recruiting the technical accountants to provide support in these circumstances.

· No penalties at the national level had been identified in terms of failing to submit the statement of accounts by the deadline. However, there was a risk that this could lead to delays in terms of the external auditors completing investigations.

· The Payroll Manager had also left the organisation and had not been immediately replaced. Due to the risks involved it had been determined that this would be suitable for consideration by the external auditors.

· Some issues had been identified in relation to Housing Subsidy in the previous year. However, investigations indicated that improvements had been made in recent months.

· The external auditors would be considering the valuation of the Council House and Dolphin Centre as operational assets due to the changing demand for use of these assets in recent months. Members were advised that this valuation would be separate to the market valuation of the properties.

· There had been some criticisms from external audit regarding the business case for Parkside. Officers had learned from these criticisms and the business case for the Dolphin Centre had been considerably more robust.

· External audit had not been able to complete reviews of the Council’s IT controls, in part due to a considerable number of updates to the Council’s systems.

· The content of the Devolution White Paper might be of interest to Members in the context of the discussions about a combined authority that were due to take place. The external auditors would be keen to ensure that Members reached well informed decisions on this subject.

· Guidance had been provided by Grant Thornton to assist Members in terms of reviewing Council accounts.

RESOLVED that the Grant Thornton progress reports and updates be noted.

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