| AU.587 | Councillor Rothwell declared a personal interest in Minute No. AU.591 below (Statement of Accounts) and Minute No. AU.594 (Financial Management in Social Services - Report and Action Plan).
Councillor Sharkey declared a personal interest in Minute No. AU.591 below (Statement of Accounts).
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| AU.588 | There were no members of the public present to ask questions under this item.
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| AU.590 | Linda Kettles representing the Audit Commission presented the Statement of Auditing Standard (SAS) 610, which required auditors to report certain matters arising from the audit of financial statements to those charged with governance.
The Audit Commission was satisfied that the financial statements complied with good practice. The Accounts had been produced a month in advance of the statutory deadline of 31 August. This placed the Authority in a good position as the statutory deadline will advance another month next year in line with the Whole of Government Accounts Initiative. The report also noted that the number of issues arising from their audit of the financial statements had reduced this year.
It was explained that following discussion with the Director of Finance and E-Government several amendments had been made to the financial statements which had been approved previously on 29 July.
The amendments did not affect either the overall surplus on the Consolidated Revenue Account or the General Fund balance carried forward at 31 March 2004.
The Audit Commission also identified that the net housing benefit liability shown in the Accounts was higher than the actual liability. It had been agreed with the Director of Finance and E-Government that no adjustment needed to be made to the Accounts. Members were asked to confirm this approach.
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| AU.591 | The Director of Finance and E-Government submitted a report which presented to Members the final version of the Authority’s Statement of Accounts for the financial year ended 31 March 2004.
The accounts had been updated to reflect a number of amendments which had been made to the accounts following the completion of the audit by the Audit Commission.
The Audit Commission had identified a number of amendments that they had recommended the Authority should make to the accounts and these had been fully discussed with the Director of Finance and E-Government.
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| AU.592 | Linda Kettles, the Audit Commission Manager submitted a report setting out the proposed audit and inspection work to be undertaken in 2004/2005.
The proposed plan had been discussed with Officers of the Authority and was linked closely to the improvement priorities of the Authority.
A timetable of the audit programme setting out inspection and report dates was appended to the report.
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| AU.593 | Linda Kettles, the Audit Commission Manager, presented the audit and inspection progress statement as at October 2004 for the audit and inspection programme 2003/2004 and 2004/2005.
The report detailed summaries of work ongoing, work in progress and work not yet started.
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| AU.594 | Linda Kettles, the Audit Commission Manager, presented a report containing the outcome of a review of Financial Management in Social Services, in particular the audit had focused on:
- arrangements to address current and future budget pressures within Social Services
- strategic Financial Management within Social Services; and
- budgetary control arrangements.
The Audit Commission had agreed the following recommendations:-
- Ensure that unfunded budget pressures are fully considered and Managers are informed of action to be taken to contain expenditure within budget.
- Develop and communicate the Social Services medium term financial strategy.
- Establish interim arrangements for budget monitoring, covering current gaps, pending the implementation of the new ledger system.
- Introduce budget monitoring against individual specific grants.
- Clarify the actions and proposed outcomes for each Project Board Subgroup.
The agreed action plan was appended to the report.
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| AU.595 | A report of the Audit Commission was submitted which set out the background to a review of the Authority’s Risk Management process.
The report also contained the Audit approach, main conclusions, strategic approach, corporate arrangements, departmental arrangements and the next steps.
The main conclusions were that the Council had developed solid foundations and was implementing its strategic approach to risk management. Departments were actively involved in identifying corporate and departmental risks. The next steps were for the Council to take its risk management approach down to an operational level and embed it further into day to day service delivery.
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| AU.596 | It was requested that future meetings of the Audit Committee be re-arranged in order to take into account deadlines of future reports.
The proposed dates of the next meetings were Thursday, 20 January 2005 and Thursday, 24 March 2005.
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