Agenda item

The Director of Finance submits a report to the Governance and Audit Committee which provides an update on the progress of the statement of accounts and external audit findings for 2022/23.

The Committee is recommended to note the contents of the report and the update provided on the progress of the external audit findings.

The Director of Finance submitted a report which provided an update on the progress of the statement of accounts and external audit findings for 2022/23.

Grant Patterson and Nicola Coombe, External Auditors for Grant Thornton presented the report and the following points were raised:

·       It was noted that the report contained audit findings to date and that a final version of the report would come back to the Committee in the near future.

·       It was noted that new findings were reported daily and that future reports would reflect any updates received.

·       Attention was drawn to page six of the report, which listed ongoing audits being worked on.

·       An incident was brought to the Committee’s awareness of an instance of overridden control, where a senior officer had posted to the journal by proxy, which was detailed on page ten of the report. Testing was therefore enhanced to gain awareness of the scope of the issue and the results of those tests were to be expected shortly.

·       Page 11 and 12 detailed multiple errors found in the risk: ‘Presumed Risk of fraud in Revenue Recognition’. It was noted that no further errors were discovered other than the errors initially found however the findings report had not been compiled by the time the report had been submitted to the Committee.

Members of the Committee discussed the report and the following points were raised:

·       Members of the Committee alerted officers to visibility struggles of the text in the table on page 23, due to the colour coding. It was noted that the table would be altered in the final report to improve legibility.

·       Members enquired about the reasons for the ongoing work in the report. It was noted that multiple errors had been found leading up to and during the construction of the report as well as outstanding pieces of evidence still expected. Members expressed concern regarding the risks the delays in information posed to the report. It was noted that there were multiple factors involved behind the delays, which were further amplified by limited resources and the small scale of team conducting the audits. Members were reassured that the issues were in hand and the team would endeavour to bring the final report back to the Committee in January 2024.

·       Members of the Committee requested further information on the objection to accounts to Selective Licensing presented in the report. It was noted that members of the public have the right to question and raise an objection to the auditor, A single resident had challenged the selective licensing fees value for money in October 2023, which was being processed It was noted that when the objection had been concluded, Grant Thornton would bring back a summary of findings to the Committee, if required.

·       Members of the Committee requested further information on the misapplication of beacons presented in the report. It was noted to be regarding the misclassification of council dwellings, in which a 2-bedroomed abode had been misclassified as a 6-bedroom property. It was further noted that a major cause of the issue had been due to changes in personnel. All properties were required to be re-evaluated and would be reported back to the Committee upon completion.

·       Members of the Committee raised concern about the risks that journal overrides could present for the Council. It was noted that associated risks had been identified and controls had been put in place to prevent re-occurrences in the future.

The Chair thanked officers for the report.

AGREED:

1.    That the report be noted.

2.    That comments made in the meeting be taken into consideration in the final report, that was due to be presented to the Committee in January 2024.