Agenda item

Members considered an External Audit report on the quality of the Statement of Accounts. The report was introduced by Mike Norman of Mazars, one of the Authority’s External Auditors. In presenting the report he highlighted the key headlines, these being on pages 23 and 24 of the report 

·       An anticipated unqualified audit opinion on the 2021/22 Statement of Accounts, with the proposed audit opinion included in the Draft Auditor’s Report attached at Appendix B of the main report.

·       Value for Money work remained in progress and the results would be reported within the Auditor’s Annual Report later in the year. There were no significant weaknesses in arrangements to report in relation to the arrangements that the Council had in place to secure economy, efficiency and effectiveness in its use of resources. Further detail on the Value for Money work was provided in section 7 of this report.

·       The Whole of Government Accounts had not yet been issued to authorities to complete and the Auditors were awaiting instruction from the National Audit Office.

·       There have been no public objections to the accounts.

Referring Members to page 26 of the report pack, the External Auditor confirmed that work in relation to the “Net Defined Benefit Pension Liability valuation” was now completed and as such he could confirm that no material issues had been identified. 

Members attention was also drawn to Section 6 of the report which set out audit misstatements, which included a small number of unadjusted misstatements.

There was one material misstatement identified during the Audit that had now been corrected by Officers, page 45 of the report pack provided details of this and circumstances which had seen this arise and there were two unadjusted misstatements to note in the following areas in

·       Pension Scheme – Net Pension Liability. The Pension Fund advised that there had been an increase in the pension fund asset value in the time between the Actuary preparing the original IAS19 pension figures and the audit of the Council’s accounts (September/October 2022). A new IAS19 report was therefore requested by the Council in October 2022 and the amount of the valuation increased to the asset value was £439k. The impact of this was to reduce the Council’s net pension liability by the same sum.

·       Valuation of Property, Plant and Equipment. During the audit a small number of errors were identified in asset data used by the Valuer. Updated valuations for the affected assets were requested which had resulted in a net increase in the asset values of £88k.

These were not considered to be material and Officers had not proposed to adjust the financial statements as result, the Auditor indicated his satisfaction with that position.

In concluding the External Auditor highlighted that the Audit had not identified any significant internal control deficiencies, no significant risks nor had they encountered any difficulties in undertaking their work. Thanks were expressed to the finance team for their co-operation.

Debate ensued and in response to questions, regarding the material misstatement, the S151 Officer explained the circumstances which had seen an additional £700,000 deemed payable to HMRC.  This payment was under dispute and Members were advised there was a meeting scheduled with HMRC to ascertain a solution.

In responding to comments on the formatting and accessibility of the reports, Members were informed that previous feedback had resulted in revisions been made, but the further feedback provided during the meeting would be passed to relevant officers. Regarding the minor individual errors, Members sought and received assurance that these were not looked at insolation and if a large number of small errors had been identified this would be referenced and effect the overall opinion.  This was not the case in respect of West Lindsey with the External Auditor further explaining that the £88,000 figure was an aggregated figure.

            RESOLVED that the content of the report be accepted