Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room One, County Offices, Newland, Lincoln LN1 1YL

Contact: Rachel Wilson  Democratic Services Officer

Items
No. Item

16.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

There were no apologies for absence.

17.

Declarations of Members' Interest

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest at this point in the meeting.

18.

Minutes of the meeting held on 24 July 2017 pdf icon PDF 144 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED

 

            That the minutes of the meeting held on 24 July 2017 be signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

19.

Internal Audit Progress Report pdf icon PDF 32 KB

(To receive a report by Lucy Pledge, Audit and Risk Manager, which provides the Committee with details of the audit work during the period 12 June to 31 August 2017 and advises on the progress with the 2017/18 plan)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Consideration was given to the Internal Audit progress report which provided details of the audit work during the period 12 June to 31 August 2017.  During this time, 13 final reports were issued including two school final reports.  Of these completed audits two received limited assurance (Accounts Payable and VAT) and the service area representatives would be attending this meeting to give updates on the action plans.

 

It was also reported that three consultancy reports had been issued including inclusion in Children's Services and early consultancy in relation to Heritage Services.  There were also seven reports at a draft stage as well as several audits in progress.

 

Work was still underway on the 2016/17 payroll report, and whilst this was being prioritised, the final report was expected at the November meeting of this Committee.

 

Members were provided with the opportunity to ask questions to the officers present in relation to the information contained within the report and some of the points raised during discussion included the following:

·         Disappointment was expressed at the lack of awareness for VAT matters in the wider Council and that recently penalties were being applied.  Members were advised that the authority used to have an exemplary relationship with HMRC, but since the implementation of Agresso a number of voluntary disclosures had been made.  However, the amount of penalties had been mitigated down to just over £12,000 from £30,000 due to the hard work of the VAT Officer by giving reasons of why the errors occurred and the systems being put in place for the future.

·         It was noted that the main disclosure resulting in a potential penalty had VAT on the purchase of some buses.  It was not a deliberate error.

·         There was also disappointment that the management response had been delayed due to annual leave.

·         Concerns were raised that work on the partial exemption calculations had not been completed since April 2015.  It was acknowledged that there had been a capacity issue as the priority had been elsewhere due to the Agresso implementation.  However, an additional temporary resource was joining the team, and there was confidence that this would deal with the issue and not have any material effect on the accounts.

·         In terms of Accounts Payable, it was noted that the authority had three years to reclaim VAT, and at April 2018 the three years would have expired.  There had been an issue with not being able to extract the information from Agresso relating to VAT recovery on mileage claims, but there was now a new programme which had been developed and should be in place by October 2017.  The only issue which would remain would be how to claim the retrospective VAT back.  Officers were currently working with HMRC to agree an acceptable methodology.

·         Officers had been working hard to put right all the issues with VAT.

·         It was clarified that the sampling which took place only covered 2016/17, even though problems had been identified since 2015. It had been determined that the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

20.

Approval of the Council's Annual Governance Statement 2016/17 pdf icon PDF 103 KB

(To receive a report by Lucy Pledge, Audit and Risk Manager, which provides the Committee with an opportunity to consider the Council's Annual Governance Statement 2016/17 prior to adoption by the Council)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Consideration was given to a report which provided the Committee with an opportunity to consider and approve the Annual Governance Statement (AGS) 2017.  It was reported that the Council was required to reflect on how well the Council's governance framework had operated during the year and identify any governance issues that needed to be drawn to the attention of Lincolnshire's residents.

 

It was reported that the Committee had considered the draft Annual Governance Statement on 24 July 2017, and the final version was now being brought for approval.  Key changes had been highlighted within the report.

 

Members were advised that good governance underpinned everything that the Council did and how services were delivered often came under close scrutiny.  A 'good' Annual Governance Statement was an open and honest self-assessment of how well the Council had run its business across all activities with a clear statement of the actions being taken or required to address any areas of concern.

 

It was commented that it was a very readable document from a member of the public's point of view.  It was also noted that members thought the document flowed well and got across a lot of information.

 

RESOLVED

 

1.    That the Committee agree that the Annual Governance Statement accurately reflects how the Council was run

2.    That the Committee agreed that the Statement included the significant governance issues/key risks that would be expected to be published

3.    That the Committee approves the Statement and recommends it for adoption by the Council.

 

 

21.

External Audits ISA 260 Report to Those Charged with Governance on Lincolnshire County Council's Statement of Accounts and Lincolnshire County Council Pension Fund Accounts for 2016/17 pdf icon PDF 130 KB

(To receive a report from Claire Machej, Head of Finance (Corporate), which sets out the External Auditors findings in their ISA 260 Report to Those Charged with Governance for the County Council's and Pension Fund Accounts)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

It was reported that the Statement of Accounts for Lincolnshire County Council and for Lincolnshire County Council Pension Fund for the financial year 2016/17 had been completed and independently audited.

 

The Committee were provided with the opportunity to consider a report which sets out the external Auditors findings in their ISA 260 report to Those Charges with Governance for the County Council's and Pension Fund Accounts.  Members were guided through the report and were advised that it was anticipated that the external Auditors would issue an unqualified audit opinion on the authority's financial statements.

 

It was noted that there was element of work still outstanding which related to a loan with RBS, which could delay the issuing of the audit opinion, but KPMG were working with the finance team to resolve this.  It was hopeful that the issue would be resolved by the end of the week.

 

The Council's external Auditors thanked Claire Machej and her team for delivering all the information which was required, and it was also noted that it was of a higher standard to the previous year.

 

Members of the Committee were provided with the opportunity to ask questions to the officers present in relation to the information contained within the report and some of the points raised during discussion included the following:

·         In relation to the Audit fees, it was noted that there would be an additional fee that needed to be charged, but that figure was still to be agreed with officers and was subject to sign off by the PSAA.

·         Members thanked the Finance Team for all their hard work in preparing the accounts.  It was noted that officers were confident that the deadlines for the following year's accounts would be met, but it was acknowledged that the deadlines were tight.  It was noted that an action plan was being developed which would address these issues for the following year.

·         It was also confirmed that achieving the new deadlines would also be a struggle for the external auditors, and they would need to look at the way the audit was resourced, but they would be working with the finance team.

·         It was noted that a lot of the information requested by the external auditors was from third parties.

·         It was noted that a key change could be around the timing of the Audit Committee meeting, and moving towards the end of July 2018 would be ideal.  It was noted that this meeting would be rescheduled if necessary.

·         In relation to the non-audit work fee: Review of Agresso ERP Project Management, it was reported that this related to work which was undertaken at the request of officers and was the piece of work carried out to review the whole process of the procurement of the Serco contract and Agresso Implementation.

·         It was confirmed that that completion of recommendations would be reported a future meeting, however, it was noted that this may be the equivalent meeting in the following year.

RESOLVED

 

1.    That the External  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

22.

Statement of Accounts for Lincolnshire County Council for the year ended 31 March 2017 pdf icon PDF 79 KB

(To receive a report by Claire Machej, Head of Finance (Corporate), which presents the final Statement of Accounts for Lincolnshire County Council for the financial year 2016/17 for approval)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Consideration was given to a report which presented the final Statement of Accounts for Lincolnshire County Council for the financial year 2016/17 for approval.

 

Members were advised that there had been no major changes to the accounts since the draft statement was presented at the meeting on 24 July 2017.

 

RESOLVED

 

            That the Audit Committee approve the Statement of Accounts for 2016/17.

23.

Work Plan pdf icon PDF 77 KB

(To receive a report from Lucy Pledge, Audit and Risk Manager, which provides the Committee with information on the core assurance activities currently scheduled for the 2017/18 work plan)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Consideration was given to a report which provided the Committee which information on the core assurance activities currently scheduled for the 2017/18 work plan.

 

RESOLVED

 

            That the Audit Committee work Plan, as presented, be approved.

24.

Consideration of Exempt Information

Minutes:

RESOLVED

 

That in accordance with section 100(A) (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the following items (Minute numbers 25 and 26) of business on the grounds that if they were present there could be a disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended.

 

25.

IMT Assurance

(To receive a report from Simon Oliver, Chief Digital Officer, which provides the Committee with assurance on the Information Management and Technology (IMT) service)

Minutes:

Consideration was given to a report which was requested at the January 2017 meeting of the Audit Committee to provide further assurance for the Information Management and Technology (IMT) service.

 

Following discussion of the report, the recommendations, were approved.

 

RESOLVED

 

            That the recommendation in the exempt report be agreed.

26.

Fraud Risk Register

(To receive a report by Lucy Pledge, Audit and Risk Manager, which provides the Committee with information on the update of the County Council's Fraud Risk Register)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Consideration was given to a report which provided the Committee with information on the update of Lincolnshire County Council's Fraud Risk register. 

 

The Committee discussed the report and officers responded to a number of queries.

 

RESOLVED

 

            That the effectiveness of the Council's arrangements to manage fraud risks be noted.

27.

Strategic Risk Register Progress Report pdf icon PDF 589 KB

(To receive a copy of the Strategic Risk Register Progress Report – September 2017)

Minutes:

This report was circulated for information only.

28.

CIPFA Audit Committee Update - Issue 23 pdf icon PDF 338 KB

(To receive a copy of Issue 23 of the CIPFA Audit Committee Update, for information only)

Minutes:

This report was circulated for information only.

 

 
 
dot

Original Text: