Agenda item

Members considered an External Audit report on the quality of the Statement of Accounts. The report was introduced by Paddy Saad and Daniel Watson of Mazars, two of the Authority’s External Auditors. In presenting the report, the key headlines were highlighted, these being on pages 22 and 24 of the report:

·       An unqualified audit opinion on the 2022/23 Statement of Accounts was anticipated and the proposed audit opinion had been included in the Draft Auditor’s Report attached at Appendix B of that report.

·       There had been no material misstatements identified during the audit that required adjustment by officers.

·       There had been no public objections to the accounts.

There was one unadjusted misstatement to note in relation to the Statement of Accounts which related to the Intangible Assets. The balance sheet in the prior period (2021/22) contained a classification misstatement of £275k between intangible assets and property, plant and equipment. In the prior period the Council recognised all intangible assets under construction within the property plant and equipment note as tangible assets under construction. Officers did not propose to adjust the financial statement for this item on the grounds of materiality. Assurance was offered by the Auditors that this was of minimal impact or concern.

Members noted that at the time of preparing the report there were a small number of matters which remained outstanding as outlined in section 2 of Appendix A. These were around sample testing and were due to be completed shortly. Mazars were also awaiting assurances from the pension fund auditors to finalise their work on the Council’s defined benefit pension liability. This work was anticipated to be completed in October at which time the statement of accounts for 2022/23 could be formally signed off.

With regard to the Value for Money commentary, it was anticipated that there were no significant weaknesses 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 the report. It was noted that there was one risk identified in the financial sustainability, with the Audit Partners commenting that this was a holistic local government concern. It was also confirmed that there had been no change to the audit strategy memorandum.

Section 5 in Appendix A outlined internal control recommendations identified during the course of the Audit by Mazars. One recommendation had been made with regards to deactivation of leavers system user profiles. 

Debate ensued, and Members enquired about the delay in issuing the final audited statement of accounts. In the questioning, Members learned that the final figures from the West Yorkshire Pensions Authority were expected by the end of October, which would then ld allow the Audit to be concluded.  There were no specific reasons provided for the delay in reviewing the pensions liability, with enquiries made to the relevant bodies, including the Pensions Board at Lincolnshire County Council, it was suggested given the work Officers had undertook to prepare accounts to meet the statutory requirements, the response was less than adequate.

            RESOLVED that the content of the report be accepted.