Issue - meetings

Officers submitted an overall summary of the 2015/16 audited grants claims for 2015/16 compared to 2014/15. There had been just one claim which required auditing in 2015/16 similar to 2014/15. This was in respect of Housing and Council Tax Benefits. This had been certified by Ernst & Young  with no amendments. This represented a good performance on behalf of the Council.

The value of the grant for 2015/16 had been £96m and the fee was £15,080, compared to £21,570 in 2015/15.

In addition to the grants which required certification three grant funding bodies had published a requirement for grantees to engage an external auditor to report audit compliance or assurance for their 2015/16 funding.

These three grants were:

·       Teachers Pensions – assurance required against £43m total contributory salary which included £10.6m teachers pensions contributions;

·       DCLG Pooling of Housing Capital receipts – Certification of £8.5m Housing Capital receipts;

·       GLA Housing Compliance audit – compliance re £0.5m spend re GLA grant funding.

Grant Thornton had been engaged to perform the certification of the Teachers Pensions at a cost of £3,350 plus vat. They had concluded that the End of Year Certificate had been prepared in accordance with the regulations.

Grant Thornton had also been engaged to undertake the certification of the Housing Capital receipts at a cost of £1,340 plus vat. This work had been unqualified with one amendment which had no monetary effect.

The final piece of work had been undertaken by Mazars at a cost of £1,800 plus vat.

In total the additional audit fees had cost £6,490 plus vat.

The Committee noted the report.