Issue - meetings

The External Auditor (Ernst Young) submitted a report on the results of the Audit Plan.  The External Auditor referred Members to the Executive Summary and advised that, subject to concluding outstanding matters referred to in the report, they expected to issue an unqualified opinion on the Council’s financial statements as detailed within Section 3 of their report. 

The External Auditor explained the areas of the audit focus and confirmed that they were still completing procedures in relation to the Council's property asset valuations.  They referred to the issue in relation to the methodology deployed and confirmed that this was in line with the CIPFA Code of Practice and guidelines.  The Head of Strategic Finance and Property explained that this was under review for next year.

In response to a query from the Committee Chairman regarding pension disclosures, the External Auditors confirmed that they were happy with the range of assumptions which had been made.

The Committee Chairman queried the new accounting and regulatory accounting standards referred to within Appendix C of the External Auditor’s report.  The Head of Strategic Finance and Property assured Members that the Council would work with the External Auditor to close the accounts within the regulatory timeframe. 

In response to a query by the Committee Chairman regarding the Audit Fee, the External Auditor said that this had not yet been completed and that any additional fee requests would be referred back to the Committee as soon as a final figure had been reached.

Members received the Audit Result report.

RESOLVED – that the Audit Result report be received.