Issue - meetings

Members considered the Audited Statement of Accounts for 2022/23. An introduction was provided by the Section 151 Officer, who advised that the Statement of Accounts 2022/23 had not received a formal audit opinion due to the delay in the pensions liability audit, but that the accounts as they stood would receive an unqualified audit opinion. The Statements reflected the Authority’s financial activity for the year up to 31 March 2023.

The Council had continued to deliver its executive business plan activities to achieve its corporate objectives, through investment projects and service delivery. The Council had achieved the statutory deadlines for the preparation of the accounts and as the auditors outlined only the pension fund audit and some sample testing was left outstanding before full certification of the statements.  The Audit completion report earlier on the agenda outlined the non-adjusting misstatement which the Auditors had identified and one control risk which had been rectified.

The narrative report provided an illustrative and comprehensive view of the Council and its performance and achievements in delivering corporate plan objectives. The Balance sheet on page 39 in the supplementary agenda pack reflected net assets of £43.842m which reflected the impact of a significant reduction in the pension liability, and which was planned to reduce further over a period of 20 years.

The Council’s useable reserves decreased marginally from £28.608 million to £28.157 million with £19.3 million earmarked for future investment and service improvements and to mitigate risk.  The General Fund working balance exceeded the minimum requirement of £2.5 million and would provide some resilience to potential changes in future funding streams in the medium term.

The Comprehensive Income and Expenditure Account on page 38 reflected a surplus on the provision of services of £(1.841) million, and after other adjustments showed a total comprehensive income and of £(35.621) million. The surplus on the provision of services was reconciled to the actual revenue outturn position in note 7 the Expenditure and Funding analysis.

The Cashflow statement on page 51 of the supplement agenda pack showed a net decrease of cash of £1.344 million, which reflected the significant amount of grant funding which the Council was holding had now partly been expended. In terms of the accounts document the auditors identified a small number of presentational items and the Statement of Accounts that was originally certified by the Chief Finance Officer and published had now been updated accordingly. There had been no events after the reporting period to declare and no requests to inspect the accounts during the statutory period. The Deputy Section 151 Officer thanked the finance team for all their hard work and invited responses.

Lengthy questioning ensued and explanation was requested and received regarding the details of the movement in usable reserves. Members heard that the Authority had about £6 million in general fund reserves that could be utilised, with the lower safety limit being judged at around £4.5 million, with this carefully monitored, for any short or long-term concerns. The Council could have  ...  view the full minutes text for item 32