Agenda item

The Deputy Chief Executive / S151 Officer highlighted to Members it was important that the processes put in place, following the issuing of the Section 24 Statement continued via this quarterly Financial Compliance Report.

With the Council having provided its accounts as per “backstop legislation” up to the 2023/24 financial year, it was proposed and approved at the January Committee meeting that the frequency of Audit Committee meetings reverted to quarterly.

As per the table at 2.7 and the deliverables underneath it, the Council were complying with National requirements. Many of the more local requirements were delivered when the budget was approved on the 19^th February – especially in relation to Treasury Indicators.

The key returns that had still not been delivered were the VAT returns. Significant work has been undertaken by the Council’s Tax advisors PS Tax in liaison with HMRC, in order for the Council to return to normal VAT reporting, and the final version working papers were provided to HMRC on the 19^th December 2024. Monthly returns were being made from December 2024 onwards.

The Council’s position on these key Closure deliverables were as follows:

·       Closure 2020/21

o   Reported as per the 5^th December Audit Committee and Disclaimer Opinion received and approved.

·       Closure 2021/22

o   Reported as per the 5^th December Audit Committee and Disclaimer Opinion received and approved.

·       Closure 2022/23

o   Reported as per the 5^th December Audit Committee and “Disclaimer Opinion” received and approved following the completion of the public consultation period on the 7^th January 2025.

·       Closure 2023/24

o   Draft Accounts were made available for public consultation since the 14^th January. This closed on the 27^th February, one day before the Backstop requirement.

o   Accounting Opinion cannot be made until Ernst and Young had been onboarded.

Key Deliverables hit since the last meeting of the Committee, included:

·       This Accounting Policies Report goes to every Audit Committee and Cabinet twice a year.

·       TechOne was upgraded to version 24B in February 2025.

·       The 2025/6 MTFP process had been completed.

·       More Budget Consultation was addressed in Tranche 1 of the budget.

·       Wider savings monitoring was being undertaken by this Committee quarterly.

·       Procurement and contract rules would be updated by the end of the financial year (to reflect changes to legislation happening in February 2025).

·       Performance Indicators had been reviewed and updated following the Strategic Priority and business plan sessions. Q3 monitoring saw the first version of these.

Ernst and Young note that the challenging part of the onboarding process, and where they have had difficulties elsewhere, would be the need to obtain returns from all elected Members. The typical time taken to obtain responses from all elected Members elsewhere had ranged from 6-12 months, we had delivered in 4 months.

The Assistant Director Finance and Customer Services further informed Members that a number of questions had been received from HMRC on systems and processes with regards to TechOne. Members were reassured that other Councils and Education Departments used TechOne. TechOne was not an off the shelf package and there were several questions to be asked / checked which Officers were keen to pick up with TechOne. Officers had answered a lot of questions on VAT and HMRC were looking at our competence in terms of our returns.

Members then raised a number of questions on the Council’s recent Council Tax Bill discrepancy.

The Deputy Chief Executive / S151 Officer explained that there had been an error with the electronic Council Tax bills sent out this year, in that Worcestershire County Council's Band D council tax increase (including the adult social care component, which was no longer billed separately) had been incorrectly shown as 17.9% and not 4.99%. This was a misprint due to a technical system problem. The Council’s Communications Team had put information on the Council’s website and via the Councils’ social media platforms. Members were reassured that the Deputy Chief Executive /. S151 Officer would check with Officers to see how much information had been cascaded to residents and if further information needed to be sent out.

The Deputy Chief Executive / S151 Officer briefly responded to  a question  on the recent VAT issues encountered with TechOne, in that there should have been three back offices for Bromsgrove District Council, Redditch Borough Council (RBC) and Rubicon Leisure, which generated a lot of income.  It was also explained that the recharges to RBC from November 2022 were incorrect, which had been resolved by TechOne, however, it had taken 14 months to be resolved.

Members commented that the report was a joy to read, as the Council had progressed somewhat considering where the Council had been 18 months ago.  Members expressed their sincere thanks to the Officers involved.

RESOLVED that the Audit, Standards and Governance Committee

1)    note that the 2022/23 Accounts, following delegated approval, had been signed off.

2)    note the position in relation to the delivery of the 2023/4 Accounts.

3)    note the ongoing process for inducting the Council’s new External Auditors, Ernst and Young; and

4)    that the progress on other financial indicators, be noted.

It was noted that there were no recommendations to Cabinet with no area of concern within this key compliance report for consideration.