| AU.207 | The Chair, Councillor Costello, welcomed Councillors A J Garner, I Gartside, R Nuttall and K Rothwell to the first meeting of the Committee and introduced Mr A Loyns the newly nominated Co-opted Member.
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| AU.208 | There were no declarations of interest recorded with regard to any items on the agenda.
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| AU.209 | There were no questions raised by the members of public present at the meeting.
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| AU.211 | The Head of Audit and Risk Management, Jim Butterworth, and the Audit Commission Manager, Linda Kettles, gave a presentation welcoming new members to the Committee and outlining the new responsibilities that the Audit Committee now had.
The presentation covered the following issues:-
- The role of Internal Audit and the legal framework surrounding it
- Services provided by Internal Audit
- Internal Audit planning
- The role of the Audit Commission
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| AU.212 | A report from the Director of Finance and E-Government was submitted summarising the work undertaken by the Internal Audit Section in the 2003/04 financial year and how it compared to the Audit Plan for the year. It contained an “audit opinion” which assessed the Authority’s control framework, and found it to be “sound”.
The report gave information on the staffing situation during 2002/2003 and the planned inputs based around the establishment. The work output showed the estimated days in terms of departments against the actual days.
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| AU.213 | The Head of Audit and Risk Management presented a report setting out the statement on Internal Control. It was explained that the Statement was a further essential element of the framework by which the obligations under S 151 of the Local Government Act 1972 were discharged. The Statement outlined the various elements of the control framework which provides assurance that key controls are operating to an acceptable standard.
The Statement was now a statutory requirement under the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2003, and must be submitted in support of the Statement of Accounts.
Members were asked to reaffirm their assurance in the Council’s control framework by endorsing the Statement on Internal Control.
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| AU.214 | The Director of Finance and E-Government presented a report from the Executive Member for Resource.
The Statement of Accounts was appended to the report and contained the Consolidated Revenue Account, the Housing Revenue Account, The Collection Fund, the Consolidated Balance Sheet and the Statement of Total Movements in Reserves.
A copy of the letter of representation on the Audit of Accounts 2003/2004 sent to the External Auditor by the Director of Finance and E-Government was also appended to the report.
Linda Kettles the Audit Commission Manager reported that the SAS 610 required the Audit Commission to report issues arising from the Audit to Councillors before the Commission gave its audit opinion on the Council’s financial statements. The Audit Commission would report back to the Audit Committee with any adjustments to the Statement of Accounts at its meeting in November.
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| AU.215 | Linda Kettles the Audit Commission Manager explained the work of the Audit Commission and the programmes that were set each year.
It was reported that the 2003/04 programme was still ongoing with the Commission reviewing areas such as the Scrutiny process, Risk Management and Social Services Accounts.
Linda explained that the Work Programme for 2004/05 had yet to be set due to the ongoing Comprehensive Performance Assessment. As soon as the results from the inspection were known the Work Programme would be set.
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| AU.216 | 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 date of the next meeting was Tuesday, 9 November 2004 to replace the meeting scheduled for Tuesday 21 September.
The meeting scheduled for Tuesday 30 November was to be rescheduled at a date yet to be agreed.
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