The report of the Council’s external auditor is enclosed.

The Committee considered the report of the Council’s external auditors (Mazars) that provided an update on progress made in delivering its responsibilities.

The Council’s external auditor introduced the report and made reference to the receipt of the Council’s 2019/20 Whole of Government Accounts (WGA) submission, which was anticipated during the week and would enable the completion of the final element of our 2019/20 audit. The Committee was informed that the national WGA submission process had changed for 2019/20 and there have been significant difficulties with the HM Treasury system which have caused challenges and delays.

The Committee was informed that planning is underway for the 2021 audit preparations in conjunction with the Council’s Accounts Team. The 2020/21 closedown of accounts required the Councils accounts to be available for public inspection by August 2021 and completed by the end of September. The tight deadline may mean there is potential delays in the completion of this work and a timetable will be developed as part of the audit planning work.

The Chair invited questions from members of the Committee.

A member referred to the possible failure to complete the external audit of the Council’s financial statement and asked if this would have a detrimental effect on the Council and what reason would be given on the Council website for not completing this requirement by the statutory deadline.

The Committee was informed that it was the intention of the external auditor to complete the audit work to a national quality standard. The notice of non-completion of the audit work would explain the tight time constraints in place and the intention to ensure the completion of the work to a quality standard. The continued impact of remote working and the complexity of the Council’s accounts make the external audit work very challenging. There will be no detrimental impact on the Council in not completing the external audit by the statutory deadline.

A member of the Committee asked what difference there would be to the Council’s annual accounts in view of the covid19 pandemic and the introduction of business grants work and would there be any comparability with previous years accounts.

The City Treasurer reported that the structural aspects of the accounts would be the same. The Management element of the accounts would include some distortion and will require explanation on the types and levels of spending that is not usual compared to other years. The work involved in the administration of Business Support Grants during the covid19 pandemic would not require detailed auditing but will require explanatory note in the accounts.

The external auditor reported that although there was no requirement for the Business Support Grants to be included in the audit of accounts, there would be a requirement to include the various streams of external funding that had been processed as part of the grants system. This would be a significant job in pulling together information from the different grant sources with a value of £12million (approx).

Decision

The Committee noted the report and the comments received.