Agenda item

The “Section 24 Statutory Recommendations Report from Grant Thornton” was presented to Council on 29 March 2023. 

This report is being brought to Audit & Governance Committee for the Committee to note the recent recommendations and the Council’s response, and to monitor future progress against the actions agreed by the Council. 

Paul Dossett, the Audit Partner, will be available at the meeting to answer any questions from Committee Members on the report.

Paul Dossett (Grant Thornton) introduced the report for members and noted the recommendations had been reported to Full Council in March 2023. The S151 Officer introduced Appendix B, the Council’s response to the Committee and advised that all the recommendations from Grant Thornton had been accepted. Much of the work required to complete the actions had been ongoing and was a continuation of the progress reporting received by the Audit and Governance Committee over the last year. Councillor Cummings noted his disappointment at the reception the report had received at Full Council and advised of the need for the organisation to accept external reporting and recommendations.

The Committee queried the prompt for and timing of the report. Paul Dossett advised this had primarily been the S114 notice, Grant Thornton had not made any public response since the Fairfield Halls issues and had already been considering the previous Chief Executive’s severance. This report brought those issues together and its March 2023 publication was agreed to allow for adequate discussion with Officers and to fit the timing of Full Council meetings.

The Committee queried Grant Thorton’s ability to resource the work required to clear the backlog of accounts by June 2024. The External Auditor advised the 2019/20 audit process could be completed quickly once the revised set of accounts were received from the Council as much of the work was already complete. The auditing of the 2020/21 accounts should be completed this year.

The Committee highlighted the External Auditor’s recommendation to ensure the monthly budget reports were robustly challenged by the Scrutiny and Audit and Governance Committees and noted a previous request for sight of reports in time for review by the Scrutiny Committee had been refused. The Committee queried whether this indicated a lack of transparency and a need to review internal processes. Cllr Cummings advised the monthly budget monitoring reports were previously required to go through the Mayor’s Advisory Board and Cabinet prior to Scrutiny. This process had been changed, reports were now available publicly and to all Committees following the Mayor’s Advisory Board meetings. The Committee noted it was important for the Council not to rely on External Auditors to highlight processes which undermined openness and transparency.

The Committee raised concerns around the action to develop an action plan to finalise the outstanding accounts and asked what percentage of the 20/21 and 21/22 accounts were complete. Paul Dossett advised 19/20 was largely complete apart from addressing the technical issues, for 20/21 the ambition was to complete these by end of 2023. An estimated 10-15% of the 21/22 work had been completed. Officers advised the Committee the complexity of the accounting tasks which had been uncovered had caused further delay to the production of the accounts.

In response to questions Officers advised they did not expect the 19/20 accounts to be in a worse position than forecast and were working in line with the MTFS and Council Tax setting. 

The Committee queried the reasoning for the 15% Council tax rise reporting recommendation. Paul Dossett advised that previous financial decisions made by the Council had not reflected Value for Money (VFM) and the recommendation ensured a proactive approach to demonstrate how the additional Council Tax income had been utilised.

In response to questions Officers advised an interim report would be brought to Committee in the Autumn following work with the External Auditors and Improvement and Assurance Panel.

The Committee asked what evidence would be used in reporting to demonstrate progress and process improvement. Officers advised this may include data such as Council Tax Collection rates and VFM/Council efficiency. Internal Audit could be utilised to support recommendation update reports. Progress would be reported via the AGS Monitoring report.

The Committee RESOLVED to:

1. Note the recent recommendations and the Council’s response; and,
2. To monitor future progress against the actions agreed by the Council.