Agenda item

The Committee received a draft of the Annual Report of the Audit and Governance Committee. The report would be presented to the Full Council meeting, provisionally scheduled for 12 July 2023. The annual report had been prepared to inform Council of the work carried out by the Council’s Audit and Governance Committee during the 2022/23 financial year. The wide-ranging items considered by the Committee throughout the year were detailed within the report.

A revised section 2.7 of the report was tabled at the meeting which read:

The Committee has received regular updates from the relevant Cabinet Member and Deputy Cabinet Members/Pension Fund Committee Chairman, senior officers and the external auditors on the production and audit of the financial statements and is monitoring the plan to catch up. Only 9% of authorities across the country completed their accounts by the due date and that position has remained. Buckinghamshire Council is experiencing delays in accounts sign off along with many other Councils for a variety of factors including the challenges and complexity inherent in putting together the financial statements of the five legacy authorities for the first time, changing regulatory requirements of both councils and auditors and staffing shortages. In addition, there have been other national complexities such as the changing requirements for infrastructure asset accounting requiring legislative changes.  There are about 630 delayed audit opinions outstanding in England. 

Points raised during discussion included:

·       Due to complications with the timing of future meetings, the report was presented to this meeting in its slightly unfinished form, with the final version to be presented at the Full Council meeting on 12 July 2023. As the next meeting of this Committee would take place after the agenda had been published for that meeting of Full Council, any amended version would be circulated electronically to Committee Members for agreement.

·       There was a placeholder at section 2.17 of the report as in line with CIPFA guidance, a self-assessment was required as to how the Committee had discharged its responsibilities. A self-assessment tool would be sent to Committee Members, with the responses to be collated and results shared with Members. A narrative would then be added into the report at section 2.17. A deadline date for responses would be given to Members.

ACTION: Ms M Gibb to share self-assessment tool with Committee Members

·       Members noted that the figures in section 2.8 of the report would be outdated at the time Full Council received the report, however, it was suggested by the Chairman that whoever presents the report at that meeting could provide a verbal update on the figures.

·       The Committee expressed concern that the revised wording of section 2.7 did not adequately reflect how challenging the Committee had been in respect of the Statement of Accounts and appeared relatively passive. It was requested that this wording be revisited to factor in the rigorous challenge and scrutiny undertaken by the Committee. This revised wording would be circulated to Members along with the wording the section 2.17 for agreement.

ACTION: Ms M Gibb to share revised version of the report to Members electronically inviting comments, prior to the report being submitted to Full Council.

RESOLVED:

That the draft annual report of the Audit and Governance Committee be approved to be presented at Full Council on 12 July 2023, subject to Members completing the self-assessment tool, and subject to the revised report and wording for section 2.17 and section 2.7 being approved electronically by Committee Members.