Agenda item

(To follow)

Decision

To note the Audit report on the Closure of Accounts 2005/06.

The District Auditor, Neil Bellamy began by stating that since the last audit a new international audit standard had been set and this was the reason for the report coming back to the Council, it was for technical purposes.  He referred members to page 4 of the report.  This gave members the purpose of the report and it’s scope.  In undertaking the audit the auditors had to comply with the Audit Commission’s Statutory Code of Audit Practice for Local Government bodies (the Code).   The responsibilities are to review and report on, to the extent required by the relevant legislation and the Code:  the Authority’s financial statement and whether the Authority had made proper arrangements for securing economy, efficiency and effectiveness in its use of resources.   A number of reports had been issued during the year on specific aspects of the audit programme.  He then referred members to page 7. On the basis of the work they had undertaken they were in a position to give an unqualified audit opinion.  He was satisfied that the recent issue of the Council’s pension scheme and the lawfulness of one aspect of the scheme would not have a material effect on the Council’s accounts, however until a review of the cases had been carried out and he had had the opportunity to look at them, he was not able to close the audit.   The accounts could be signed off but not the audit.  He then briefly went through paragraphs highlighting to members’ areas that although they had to be reported, the auditors had nothing to report. He said that it was fair to say that the closure of accounts this year was much improved on the previous year.  He then drew members’ attention to paragraph 26 of the report which was a key paragraph and dealt with the letter of representation. This was written assurance from the Section 151 Officer that the auditors had been given all the facts in order to carryout their audit.  A text of the letter required was appended to the report.  The committee was happy for the Corporate Head of Finance and Resources to sign the letter of representation. The report then went on to discuss the Council’s use of resources.  The Code required the auditors to reach a conclusion on whether they were satisfied that the Authority had proper arrangements in place for securing economy, efficiency and effectiveness in its use of its resources, they had completed their work and had nothing to report to the committee.  The auditors concluded by thanking the Corporate Head of Finance and Resources and her team for all the work that had been undertaken in order to be in the current position.  The council showed a positive constructive approach and the self-assessment of the Council would be looked at in November- January this year with the reporting in the annual audit letter in March.   The Chairman indicated that although she was not expecting a scoring of 3 across the board, she hoped that as the Council had made resources a category A priority they would be able to make progress towards scoring the higher end of 2 and maybe some 3’s.

Questions were then asked about the pensions issue and the money involved to which the Corporate Head of Finance and Resources replied. The Monitoring Officer stated that although the issue of the pension scheme was in the public arena, members should be cautious about discussing repayments and claims.