Issue - meetings

The Senior Accountant introduced the report.  An amendment to recommendation 2.2 and a supplementary report had been published earlier in the day and was also tabled.  The Committee had been advised that the amendment was a result of an updated valuation of the Council’s pension fund assets from the scheme actuary. The officers were anticipating sign off by 30 September, although the late update may delay matters slightly.

Mr Hodgson for the Council’s External Auditor (EY) made the following comments:

i)              The Council and EY had worked well, with the Council providing a good set of papers this year which helped enormously.  He was hopeful of completion by 30 September.  Commentary in Appendix E will go in the Annual Auditor’s Report.

ii)             Page 228 illustrated the explanation of the outstanding work on the pensions valuations/disclosures which should be resolved by 30 September.

iii)           Pages 240-247 illustrated an overall unqualified opinion, in summary the Council was in a good place.

Members congratulated the finance team and EY on a productive and timely audit and the Chair asked that Members’ appreciation be passed onto the council officer and EY teams who had worked on this.

 Resolved –

To receive the Audit Results Report presented by EY.

That the Statement of Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2021 (as amended by appendix 1 to the supplementary report) be approved subject to any remaining amendments per recommendation below

That authority be delegated to the Chair, in consultation with the Spokes, to approve any amendments to the Statement of Accounts arising from the remaining audit procedures, provided that these do not have a material impact on the Council’s usable reserves or result in any changes to the auditor’s opinion.

That the Chair be authorised to sign the Letter of Representation and the Statement of Accounts for the year ending 31 March 2021 on behalf of the Council.