The Committee received Report No:
PAS/FH/16/020, which presented the results of Ernst and
Young’s (EY) audit of the financial statements for
2015-2016.
The report set out issues EY were formally
required to report on to those charged with governance, under the
Audit Commission Code of Audit Practice and International Standards
on Auditing (ISA (UK and Ireland) 260).
The report also included the results of the
work that EY had undertaken to assess the Council’s
arrangements to secure value for money in the use of its resources,
as the Performance and Audit Scrutiny Committee was charged with
governance in accordance with powers delegated to it under the
Council’s Constitution.
The Council’s unaudited 2015-2016
statement of accounts, signed by the Council’s Chief Finance
Officer (Section 151 Officer) on 30 June 2016, had been updated to
reflect adjustments recommended by EY from their audit
work. Members were advised that the
adjustments were all immaterial to the overall financial position
of the Council and were in most cases, merely presentational
changes.
A copy of the Audit Results Report was
attached as Appendix A, and was presented to the Committee by Mark
Hodgson (Executive Director) and Mark Russell (Assistant Manager)
from EY.
Also attached as Appendix B to the report was
a Letter of Representation, on behalf of the Council in accordance
with the audit of the financial statements for Forest Heath
District Council for the year ended 31 March 2016.
Mr Hodgson confirmed that all work on the
audit of the Council’s 2015-2016 financial statements had
been concluded and no further errors had been
identified. Therefore,
EY would be issuing an unqualified opinion and
certificate this evening, (22 September 2016), stating the
Council had
proper arrangements in securing economy, efficiency and
effectiveness in its use of resources. He explained that the Forest
Heath accounts were the second set of accounts to be signed off for
2015-2016 and were equal best to St Edmundsbury, that he had seen
so far this year. He wished to thank the Head of Resources
and Performance and her team who had been helpful and instrumental
in making this a very smooth audit for EY.
However, he wished to draw the
Committee’s attention to a couple of key areas:
1)
On page 14 – There were no outstanding audit items.
2)
Unadjusted item(s) – Newmarket Leisure Centre had been
accepted by the auditors, and was therefore no longer being shown
as an unadjusted item.
3)
On page 20 – Standard representations had been
requested. However, there was one
specific representation in addition to the standard
representations, which was specific to the Solar Farm for
contingent liability.
4)
On page 21 - Value for Money –
There was one significant risk due to the budget gap over the next
3 – 4 years. However, the Council
had put place proper arrangements to secure value for money in the
use of its resources.
Members asked the report, and the Chairman, on
behalf of the Committee wished to thank the Head of ...
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