Issue - meetings

A report of the Director of Finance (Section 151 Officer) was presented for information in relation to the draft Statement of Accounts (SOA) for the 2022/2023 financial year.

Officers were due to meet with External Auditors to discuss the implications of the Government’s proposals, announced in July 2023, in relation to the need to re-set the national local government audit market to address the significant delays in completing the audit of prior year accounts.   Further information would be shared with the Committee when the position was clarified by the Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities (DLUHC).

Presentation of the draft SOA for 2022/2023 had been delayed due to the ongoing audit of 2021/2022, which included a specific review of the methodology for calculating the Collection Fund bad debt provision for compliance with IAS37.  The S151 Officer requested the External Auditor to undertake this work considering the material adjustments that were anticipated to result from the review, whilst other work on the 2021/2022 audit had been suspended by the External Auditor pending resolution of the approach to be taken to conclude legacy audits as part of the national reset of the local government audit market.

The cumulative delay to completing the audit of the Council’s legacy accounts was also due to a much longer audit process on the previous two years audits (2019/2020 and 2020/2021) as reported to the Committee in October 2023.  This was due to additional regulatory and value for money work being undertaken by the auditor.

Any potential audit adjustment because of the review of the Collection Fund Bad debt provision in the 2021/2022 accounts would impact on the opening balances of 2022/2023, therefore the S151 officer was unable to sign and publish the 2022/2023 accounts as presenting a true and fair view until this work was concluded.

Despite this delay (the statutory date for publishing these accounts was 31 May 2023), it was still an important aspect of the governance and approval process for Members to consider the financial details of the Council at the draft stage and prior to the external audit process being undertaken.  Members of the Audit Committee had received bespoke training on the Statement of Accounts prior to the meeting.

A copy of the draft Statement of Accounts (SOA) 2022/2023 was attached at Appendix A to the submitted report.  The Statement of Accounts consisted of a Narrative Report from the Director of Finance that provided an explanation on the financial position of the Council and described the key activities/highlights for the Council during the year.   The report also contained performance-based information that showed what had been achieved using public funds during the financial year.  The second section includes the Council’s financial statements.  These were the core elements of the SOA and included the movement in reserves statement, the income and expenditure statement, the balance sheet, and the cash flow statement for 2022-23.  The third section was the notes to the accounts, and these include detailed narrative explanation and figures that supported the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20