Decision details

Approval for the Chair of Civic Affairs to sign the Statement of Accounts and Letter of Management Representation on behalf of the Committee following presentation of the audited accounts and the report of the external auditors.

The Committee received a report from the Principal Accountant. Before giving their formal opinion of the accounts there was a requirement for Ernst & Young to present their audit findings and obtain a letter of management representation signed by both the Head of Finance and a member on behalf of ‘those charged with governance.’ Under the Council’s Constitution, this responsibility rested with the Civic Affairs Committee.

The Principal Accountant updated her report to say:

       i.          Figures listed in “Group Comprehensive Income and Expenditure Statement” on P191 of the agenda were mislabelled. Details were corrected in the statement of accounts awaiting sign off.

     ii.          P85. On 10 July, BDO (the external auditors of the Cambridgeshire Local Government Pension Scheme), informed Ernst & Young of a material difference between the estimate of the assets of the scheme used by the actuary in the reports given to Cambridgeshire councils to use for their year end accounts and the actual year end position. Councils across the country were in a similar position. The City Council’s assets had increased by £2.8m between the estimate and actual figure.

The Senior Manager (Ernst & Young) guided Civic Affairs Committee through the executive summary set out on P234 of the agenda.

The Senior Manager said in response to questions from Members and the Independent Person:

       i.          Clarified agenda P249 “The proportion of the land being developed for market housing has been treated as a disposal as the land transfers to the owner on purchase of a property.” When houses were sold, land would transfer from the Cambridge Investment Partnership to the new property owners.

     ii.          There were no issues with pension valuations and disclosures (agenda P247).

   iii.          The capital assets portfolio would be reviewed in full each year in future. This was not needed previously. There were no issues with the portfolio currently.

In response to Members’ questions the Principal Accountant said:

       i.          For accounting purposes, the Council had significant influence over Cambridge Live through its ‘associate’ status.

     ii.          Storeys Field Charitable Trust had not been consolidated in the group accounts as it was not material because they were too small. Officers planned to review this in 2018/19. It was not an issue.

Councillors asked the minutes to record the Committee’s thanks to Officers from the City Council and Ernst & Young, who ensured the accounts were prepared early, as Central Government brought the deadline forward. A complex close down was completed.

The Committee received the audit findings presented by Ernst & Young.

The Committee approved (by 5 votes to 0) the Statement of Accounts for the year ending 31 March 2018.

Councillor Benstead did not vote on this item.

The Chair of the meeting was authorised to sign the Letter of Representation and Statement of Accounts for the financial year ending 31 March 2018 on behalf of the Council.