Issue - meetings

Purpose of Report

To present the Statement of Accounts for the financial year ended 31 March 2019, together with a short summary of the key issues reflected in the statutory financial statements.

Decision

That the Statement of Accounts be recommended to Council for approval.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected

None.

Reason for Decision

The Statement of Accounts for 2018/19 provided a comprehensive picture of the Council’s financial circumstances and were compiled to demonstrate probity and stewardship of public funds.

The Council was statutorily required to publish its Statement of Accounts for 2018/19 with an audit opinion and certificate by no later than 31 July 2019.

Following updated information on pension judgements, changes had been made to the Statement of Accounts to adjust for the impact of the amended Actuary report. The impact of these judgements to the Council was £621,000 in relation to the McCloud judgement and £294,000 for the GMP equalisations changes.

The Council was required to make the Statement of Accounts available for public inspection for 30 working days. Following notification from the Council’s external auditors, this ran from 3 June 2019 until 11 July 2019 and the external auditor was available to answer questions during this period. It was reported that no questions had been asked.

The Council was also required to provide a documented annual review of the effectiveness of its governance arrangements which sat alongside the Statement of Accounts, known as the Annual Governance Statement. The overall level of assurance provided in 2018/19 was substantial and was in line with the Council’s Code of Corporate Governance.

The Statement of Accounts 2018/19 were presented to the meeting of the Audit Committee held on 17 September 2019. It was reported that the accounts should have been submitted for consideration and subsequent approval in July however there had been delays in their completion of the external audit. The external auditor’s work on the financial statements was now substantially complete and, subject to satisfactory conclusion of any outstanding work, they would propose issuing an unqualified audit opinion by 30 September 2019. As part of the audit, the internal controls in place relevant to the preparation of the financial statements had been considered, with three recommendations resulting from this work made as follows:

·         production of draft accounts and working papers;

·         incomplete disclosures for pension fund plan assets;

·         investment property valuations.

It was reported that the Council’s arrangements for securing economy, efficiency and effectiveness in its use of resources were adequate. The external auditors therefore proposed issuing an unqualified opinion on the Council’s value for money arrangements.

The external auditors had expressed their disappointment in the quality of accounts received as part of the Council’s submission. The Chief Finance Officer gave an assurance that work was underway with her team to ensure that this was not the case for next year’s submission.