Issue - meetings

To receive a report from the Deputy Chief Executive (S151) presenting the draft version of the annual Statement of Accounts and Annual Governance Statement for 2023/24.

The Committee had before it, and NOTED a report * from the Deputy Chief Executive (S151) presenting the draft version of the annual Statement of Accounts and Annual Governance Statement to Members published on the website and presented for external audit.

The Committee was informed that it was not expected to approve the Statement of Accounts this evening, it would be asked to do this after they had been audited, finalised and brought before it at the October Committee meeting. As a helpful aid in trying to understand what the role of the Committee was in the process a presentation was delivered that provided the following summary information:

·       The role of the Audit Committee in relation to the Annual Accounts and the Annual Governance Statement.

·       Things the Committee needed to consider, for example, previous assurance reports from internal and external audit.

·       Financial performance.

·       Was the Council a ‘Going concern’?

·       How well did the accounts ‘tell the story’?

·       What were the ‘Financial Statements’?

·       Timeframes.

·       Regulations.

·       Accounting policies.

·       Main aspects of the Accounts.

·       Main Financial Statements.

·       Key issues being:

o   The soft closure of 3 Rivers Development Ltd.

o   District Council election.

o   Cost of Living Crisis.

o   Patronage levels.

o   Bin-It 123 performance.

·       Audit Annual Report and the Audit Opinion.

·       The Annual Governance Statement.

·       External Audit outputs.

It was hoped that when the Accounts came back to the Committee in October Members would have a better understanding of their role in approving them. Members were asked to contact officers if there was anything they needed clarification on. No question was a stupid question.

Discussion took place regarding:

·       The Accounts made no mention of the upcoming General Election and this was because they represented a true and fair reflection of the Council’s finances as at 31 March 2024. There was no way of knowing what a new Government would do with regards to local authority funding in the future.

·       Several auditing firms were mentioned in the Accounts, for example, Grant Thornton, Bishop Fleming and KPMG. The role of each was explained.

·       A Committee member had recently attended a DAP event and informed the Committee that DAP now stood for ‘Devon Assurance Partnership’.

Note: * Report previously circulated.