Agenda item

(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)

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 Auditors Report to Those Charged with Governance (ISA 260) for Lincolnshire County Council and the Pension Fund be received.

2.    That the Letter of Representation on behalf of the Council to enable the Audit Opinion to be issued be approved.