Agenda item

(To receive a report by Michelle Grady (Assistant Director – Strategic Finance) which seeks approval of the Statement of Accounts for 2019/20. NOTE: Appendix A1 to the report is marked 'to follow')

Consideration was given to a report by the Assistant Director – Strategic Finance which presented the Statement of Accounts for Lincolnshire County Council and the Lincolnshire Pension Fund for the financial year 2019/20.

It was reported that the Committee had reviewed the Draft Accounts at its meeting on 13 July 2020 and the changes made since then were set out in Appendix D of the report.  However, it was noted that none of these changes were considered to be material.

It had been highlighted at the meeting in July that there may be issues which were outside the control of the authority, but the Committee would be updated of any changes at its meeting in November 2020. Some things which had proven to be issues were around the valuations of property assets, and there had been some alterations to the valuation of assets in the Pension Fund accounts.    There had also been changes following the outcome of the McLeod Review, however, these were not considered to be material.

Members were guided through the report and were provided with an 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:

·         The External Auditors thanked the officers for the help and support that they had received from the finance team throughout this period;

·         Members thanked the auditors and the finance team for all their work carrying out an external audit which had been difficult under the current circumstances and were pleased to hear that there was a confidence that November's deadline would be met.

·         Reference was made to p.18 of the agenda pack and the proposed increase in audit fees of 37%, and it was queried what the approval process from the public sector appointments company was and how was this agreed on the authority's behalf. Clarification was sought from the external auditors on how that figure was calculated.  Members were advised that in terms of the process it had been highlighted that there would be some potential additional fees in the interest of transparency.  It was noted that it would not be the full 37% increase as it would be tailored to the authority's needs.  This would then be discussed and agreed with officers.  It was highlighted that there was full engagement throughout this process, before being signed off by the public sector audit appointments.  In terms of calculating the cost, it was noted that the amount of hours to do the work was predicted and there were set rates according to the grade of work.

·         In relation to paragraph 1.19 regarding the recommendation from the Redmond Review that local authorities should appoint at least one independent member to audit committees, and it was noted that Lincolnshire was already meeting this requirement and had done for some time, however, not every authority currently had independent members.

RESOLVED

1.    That the Audit Committee notes the Audit Completion reports and verbal updates of the External Auditor regarding their audit work on the draft Statement of Accounts;

2.    That the Letters of Representation be approved on behalf of the Council to enable the Audit Opinion to be issued following the report of the External Auditor; and

3.    That the Statement of Accounts for 2019/20 be approved taking into consideration that further changes may still take place that would be agreed between the External Auditor and Senior Officers to enable publication by this year's statutory deadline of 30 November 2020.