Agenda item

The Committee received a verbal update on the latest situation with the Buckinghamshire Council Statement of Accounts 2020/2021. Mr David Skinner, Service Director for Finance and Section 151 Officer and Mr Iain Murray, Grant Thornton (External Auditors) attended to present the update. Key points raised in discussion included:

·    It was confirmed that the Statement of Accounts had been submitted to Grant Thornton on 23 September. The Committee and the Section 151 Officer placed on record their thanks to Ms Hasina Shah, Head of Finance systems and her team for their work and progress made over the past month. The Council had been successful in appointing to the Chief Accountant position who would take up post in November and assist in providing ongoing focus and ensuring that there was sufficient capacity to deliver accounts on time moving forward. The 2020/21 accounts were now subject to review by Grant Thornton, whilst the Council team commenced work on preparing the 2021/22 Statement of Accounts for submission.

·    At the time of this meeting, Grant Thornton had only had one working day to review the accounts, however Mr Murray confirmed that many of the amendments made were as expected whilst there were further areas where there had been movement which would require discussion with officers. It was noted that much of the transactional audit work had previously been completed.

·    The national issue affecting all upper tier authorities on infrastructure accounting remained a significant challenge as there now needed to be a Statutory Instrument implemented to deal with the issue. As national events had led to certain prioritisation for the Government, the legislation timetable to pass the Statutory Instrument had slipped and was now not expected to be passed until the end of November at the earliest. Given that the previous target date was June/July, there was caution around the November expectation.

·    Members were advised that the majority of local authorities were in a similar position with respect to the infrastructure accounting issues, although some authorities had signed their accounts subject to a qualified opinion, whilst a minority had significant detail to the accounting level of infrastructure assets which allowed them to progress. The professional view and advice from the Section 151 Officer was to wait for the Statutory Instrument to be passed rather than accept a qualification. This was also the advice from the Society of County Treasurers.

·    Mr Murray would be leaving his role at Grant Thornton in November and advised that it would be the incoming partner who would sign the accounts off. Reassurance was given to the Committee that there was no reason to believe that the handover would lead to any further unexpected delay. The Committee thanked Mr Murray for his work with the Council, and previously the County Council and wished him luck for his new position at CIPFA.

·    At the point Grant Thornton were satisfied with the accounts, they would be brought before this Committee to approve, and for authority to be delegated to the Chairman and Section 151 Officer to sign the accounts, provided that there was nothing of significant concern related to the infrastructure assets accounting issues.

RESOLVED:

That the Buckinghamshire Council Statement of Accounts 2020/21 verbal update be noted.