Issue - meetings

The Committee received an oral report from the Ernst & Young External Auditor:

       i.          The audit of council accounts was rescheduled to September 2019. This was due to a lack of resources in Ernst & Young to undertake City Council audit work, which reflected the national situation.

     ii.          The situation was exacerbated by two staff leaving Ernst & Young in early summer.

   iii.          The audit should take place 9 September and a report will be brought to the 9 October Civic Affairs Committee.

   iv.          The External Auditor was confident the situation would not arise in future.

The Committee made the following comments in response to the report:

       i.          This was the second time in one week that Ernst & Young had not been able to complete an audit.

     ii.          Sought assurances that the audit would be complete by September. Asked for early notification if this would not be possible.

   iii.          Queried if Ernst & Young could meet its audit obligations.

   iv.          The council was struggling to recruit staff for services as Ernst & Young were. This needed to be reviewed as a matter of urgency as Cambridge was a competitive job market.

The External Auditor said the following in response to Members’ questions:

       i.          The intention was to have resources in place to allow the audit to be reported back in October. He would liaise with the Head of Finance to facilitate this.

     ii.          The External Auditor had liaised with the Head of Finance to check what the Council’s responsibilities were. Statutory deadlines would not be missed through the delay in account sign-off. The Council has published that it was not able to publish its accounts as the audit was not complete. It had fulfilled its obligations to date. Re-iterated the accounts should be published in October.

The Head of Finance made the following points:

       i.          The Council had not met the draft deadline of publishing its draft accounts 31 May 2019. The process will be reviewed to streamline it for 2020.

     ii.          Not publishing the statement of accounts did not impact on Council finances, which were healthy.

   iii.          The accounts had been completed. Draft accounts should be published circa 26 July after being checked.

   iv.          The delay in publication of accounts was caused by:

a.    Complex accounts.

b.    Loss of staff/expertise.

c.    New staff had to grasp council processes in a short period of time.

    v.          A number of process improvements had been identified for 2020 including the hand-over of arrangements from interim senior staff to new ones.

The Independent Person commented that local authority accounts were complicated, and City Council accounts even more so, so he understood why it was possible to miss the audit deadline.

Unanimously resolved to note the oral update.