Issue - meetings

The Committee received a copy of the Audit Letter issued by Ernst & Young following completion of the 2016/17 audit. They had issued unqualified opinions on both the Council’s and Pension Fund‘s financial statements. The Audit Results Report had been issued on 27 September 2017 and the certificate of completion had been issued on 30 October 2017 once they had completed the Whole of Government Accounts work.

The External Auditors were required to consider whether the Council had put in place ‘proper arrangements’ to secure economy, efficiency and effectiveness on its use of resources.  During discussion, it was explained that this year, the use of the client portal would provide a direct link to Ernest and Young.  Analytics had been used in different areas of the audit, with difficulties being experienced with the distraction of data for the auditors. A specific team was in liaison with council teams to ensure format compatibility. 

The Council engaged a third party, Analyse Local, to calculate its provision for future losses of non-domestic rates income arising as a result of successful appeals against non-domestic rate values.  The auditors had found that the Council had not sufficiently challenged its expert on assumptions made in calculating this estimate, although their subsequent testing of this provision did not identify any further matters to bring to the attention of the Committee. 

The Council would undertake to document its findings in future, in order to ensure that challenge is evidenced.

The Committee noted the contents of the letter.