Decision details

The report of the Director of Finance and Transformation presented an unaudited set of Accounts for 2019/20 in the format specified by the Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting in the United Kingdom.  The Annual Governance Statement (referred to at Minute AU 20/17) accompanied the Statement of Accounts. 

The Committee was reminded that responsibility for approval of the Statement of Accounts was delegated to the Audit Committee under the Council’s constitutional arrangements.  In response to the Covid-19 pandemic the deadline for approval and publication of an audited set of accounts for 2019/20 had been moved from 31 July to 30 November 2020.

In addition, the report of the external auditors (published as a supplement to the main report) set out progress in delivering their responsibilities in auditing the Borough Council’s accounts.

It was anticipated that an audited set of accounts would be presented for approval at the next meeting of the Audit Committee.  At the current time, no significant concerns had been raised by the External Auditors. 

Members were advised that the extent of the adverse financial impact arising from the Covid-19 pandemic would not be known for some time.  However, in all likelihood the Borough Council’s reserve balances would be very much reduced from that assumed in February 2020, as part of the budget setting process, and as a result would have an adverse impact on the scale and timing of the savings to be achieved.

Finally, Members supported the comments of the External Auditors in acknowledging the performance of the Finance Team in delivering a complete and good quality set of financial statements on the same timescales as in previous years despite the difficulties caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and asked that their appreciation be recorded.

RESOLVED:  That

(1)             the Statement provided by the Director of Finance and Transformation in support of assertions made in the Statement of Responsibilities for the Statement of Accounts, as set out at Annex 2 to the report, be noted;

(2)             the (unaudited) Statement of Accounts 2019/20 as currently presented be noted;

(3)             the External Auditors progress on the audit of the Statement of Accounts for 2019/20 (published as a supplement to the main report) be noted;

(4)            in all likelihood, the Covid-19 pandemic would have a significant impact on the Borough Council’s reserve balances and as a result, in turn, have an adverse impact on the scale and timing of the savings to be achieved be noted.