Agenda item

Report of the Director – Finance and Corporate Services

Ms Frudd from Mazars, the Council’s External Auditors, presented the External Audit Completion report provided in Appendix A and the Management Representation Letter in Appendix B.  The documents report to those charged with Governance the key conclusions in the audit process for 2022/23 and also comments upon the Statement of Accounts and their quality.

Ms Frudd provided a recap of the audit approach and highlighted the significant findings and the audit conclusion. These include:

·       Management Override – No issues had been identified.

·       Net defined benefit liability valuation – No issues had been identified. However, the audit was ongoing as they had not received the assurance required form the pension fund auditor.

·       Valuation of land and buildings and investment properties – 2 immaterial misstatements had been identified and these remain unadjusted in the 2022/23 accounts. However, the Council will correct these for 2023/24.

·       Insourcing Streetwise – No issues had been identified.

It was noted that the draft accounts were received (for the financial year to 31 March 2023), some minor adjustments had been identified and a further set of revised draft accounts were received on 4 August 2023.

With regards to internal control recommendations the Group were advised there had been one level 2 recommendation in respect of 2 missing Councillor declarations of interest forms. It was noted the Councillors were no longer serving.

Ms Frudd provided a summary of misstatements that the audit had identified and confirmed these had been corrected.

With regards to Value for Money the Group noted the audit work of the Council’s arrangements had not been completed at the time of preparing this report. However, Ms Frudd confirmed the audit had not identified any significant weaknesses in the Council’s arrangements and the Group were advised that commentary would be provided in the Auditor’s Annual Report by January 2024.

Councillor Thomas asked a specific question in respect of S106 contributions not yet recognised as income due to conditions not yet being met and whether the Council’s Growth Boards had had a significant role in highlighting where there were potential issues. The Group were reminded that in the recent review of Growth Boards in some areas these had been removed. The Service Manager – Finance explained S106 contributions were held by other organisations such as Nottinghamshire County Council and that planning officers regularly liaise with the organisations who requested the contribution, as well as contacting beneficiaries where a contribution is nearing its expiry date.

Councillor Birch commented on the valuation of assets and asked what measures are in place to assure members that officer valuations are accurate. Ms Frudd explained that valuation of assets is a significant risk area based on assumptions, expectations and benchmarking and due to the high degree of estimation uncertainty this has been determined as a significant risk. The Director – Finance and Corporate Services informed the Group that valuations are undertaken by a senior officer and overseen by the Director – Growth and Economic Development and finance also review the valuations, in particular with regards to key variances.

It was RESOLVED that the Governance Scrutiny Group:

a)    Approved the findings of Mazars Audit Completion Report (Appendix A)

b)    Approved the Management Representation Letter (Appendix B)

It was Respl