Agenda and minutes

To approve the minutes of the meeting of the Standards and Audit Committee held on 20 June 2024 as published.

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the Committee held on 20 June 2024 be approved and signed as a true and correct record.

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors G Cosnahan and L Rice.

(i)         To receive declarations of interest from Members and Officers in respect of any item to be considered at the meeting.

(ii)        In accordance with the Officer Employment Procedure Rules, the Strategic Director - Corporate Resources, Kevin Foster declares a disclosable personal interest (non-pecuniary) in any items concerning the companies of which he is a Council-appointed director.  The companies are listed in the attached schedule.  The interests are such that Mr Foster may advise on those items.

In accordance with the Officer Employment Procedure Rules, the Strategic Director - Corporate Resources, Kevin Foster declared a disclosable personal interest (non-pecuniary) in any items concerning the companies of which he is a Council-appointed director.  The interests were such that Mr Foster could advise on those items.

To consider any business that the Chairman rules may be dealt with under Section 100B(4) of the Local Government Act 1972.

There were no items of Urgent Business.

Reporting Person – Stephen Fitzgerald

Covering report – pages 9 to 14

Financial Statements 2019-20 – pages 15 to 116

Financial Statements 2020-21 – pages 117 to 212

Financial Statements 2021-22 – pages 213 to 311

Stephen Fitzgerald, the Council’s Director of Finance / S151 Officer introduced the report on the 2019/20, 2020/21 and 2021/22 statement of accounts and stated that the last accounts approved by Full Council had been for the 2018/19 financial year at its meeting on 25 July 2019.  The reasons had included an inherent delay in closing accounts and delivering audits across the local government sector with only 1% of local authority 2022/23 accounts had been completed on time; specific problems encountered by the External Auditor BDO in closing these accounts; and issues associated with the financial information at the Council along with a shortage of capacity within the finance team.  Since spring 2024, additional resource had been brought in to strengthen the team and the presentation of these accounts represented a step on the road to recovery for the Council and its finances, intended to increase the confidence in the Council in light of the overhanging debt issue.  In the Autumn it was planned to deliver the 2022/23 and 2023/24 accounts. 

2019/20 Accounts

The Committee was advised that the 2019/20 accounts had been completed and published on the Council’s website, with audit work commenced.  Members noted that these accounts were under the name of Leigh Clarke as Finance Director at the time and, as they had been submitted for audit work, it would not be appropriate to amend them.

Paragraph 4.12 of the explanatory forward in the 2019/20 accounts referred to prudential code allowing investment to be affordable, prudent and sustainable taking into account the level of income including Council Tax and housing rents.  Councillor Oades commented that the level of borrowing taken by the Council was clearly not sustainable or prudent and the loans were also taken from the PWLB for revenue purposes.  Councillor Oades also challenged the statement in paragraph 10.1 that the Council’s overall financial performance in 2019/20 was good.  Stephen Fitzgerald highlighted that the 2019/20 accounts are as they were presented to the auditors and the issuing of the section 114 notice has led to a significant re-assessment of both the revenue account and balance sheet of the Council.  The adjustments associated with the section 114 notice would be made in the 2023/24 accounts, rather than re-stating prior years.

The Minimum Revenue Provision (MRP) for the relevant years was noted to be under-stated.  Although the MRP for these years was understated, the MRP policy approved by Council was correctly implemented.  Therefore adjustments to correct the level of MRP would be made prospectively rather than retrospectively in the previous years’ accounts.

2020/21 Accounts

The 2020/21 accounts had been placed on the Council’s website but not submitted for Audit work.  Following review, it was considered by the finance team that several adjustments were required to accurately reflect the Council’s position.  Mike Stevens, Deputy Financial Services Manager stated that the main changes were the transfer of £9.5m of market loans due to mature within one year from long-term borrowing to short-term borrowing on the balance sheet; earmarked reserves had been  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.