Meeting Details

The Committee received report ES/2289. Councillor Vince Langdon-Morris, Cabinet Member with responsibility for Resources and Value for Money, introduced the report. The report contained the Provisional Audit Results Report for the 2023/24 Statement of Accounts including the 2023/24 Value for Money commentary, the Provisional Statement of Accounts for 2023/24 and the Final Annual Governance Statement (AGS) 2023/24. In order to meet the backstop date of 28th February 2025 for completion of all 2023/24 audits, these reports and statements were being presented to this committee provisionally, inclusive of all noted amendments, pending EY’s Final Audit Result. Although a disclaimed opinion was anticipated, due to the timescale pressures presented by the backstop, EY still must conduct further review work prior to issuing the Final Audits Results report.

 The Chair invited questions.

Councillor Lynch stated this was a continuation of issues at the last meeting with EY and they were not delivering despite promising to do so. Furthermore the fees are not yet established, despite the fact that we need to approve them. There has been an increase in fees of over £100k between 2022/23 to 2023/24.

Councillor Smithson agreed and stated that at some point this has to be accurate and signed off, especially before devolution and reorganisation. 

 The Chief Executive confirmed the consultation on local government reorganisation and devolution had been published today, and the reorganisation proposals had to be submitted by May with the new authorities going live in April 2028. Regarding the audit issues, this was ongoing over the UK.

 The Chair asked if devolution and reorganisation and the impact of this had been considered by EY. Mr Riglar stated in terms of the system going forward, this was heavily dependent on external factors such as devolution and reorganisation and it was difficult to predict what the result would be. The present broken audit system had been reset, and this is why the report did not provide full coverage. This was not unusual across local government at the moment. Areas where there was partial assurance related to the lack of coverage from the years which had been reset. The areas in the report that Councillor Lynch had referred to would not be finished completely due to this reset. At some point work had to be cut off.

 The Chair agreed this was a national dilemma, local authorities needed a greater choice and say in their audit so they did not end up with watered down work.

 Councillor Lynch referred to fees and asked if these could be withheld while the audit had not been delivered. The Chief Finance Officer confirmed that Public Sector Audit Appointments (PSAA) was reviewing fees in light of the reduced work to establish what was an appropriate fee. There were over 700 audits to be considered so this would take some time. The Value for Money fee had been agreed at around £22,000. The complete fee had not been paid for 22/23 and 23/24, only for work that had been done, the full fees would not be paid until the PSAA review. The Chair asked that the committee were kept informed of the reviewed fees. 

 Councillor Lynch stated he felt the Chair and Chief Finance Officer should not be required to sign off on incomplete accounts and asked if the Committee could recommend that the accounts were only signed off for completed areas. The Chief Executive stated he and the Chief Finance Officer would be writing to EY and the PSAA to complain about the issues and the consistent underinvestment that had resulted in this situation. The Committee could not recommend that the accounts were signed partially, as this was already a disclaimed opinion. The Chair agreed that this was frustrating, and asked that the letter also be signed by the Committee.

 On the proposal of Councillor Thompson, seconded by Councillor Molyneux it was 

 RESOLVED

That the Audit and Governance Committee:
1. Delegated authority to the S151 Officer, in consultation with the Chair of Audit and Governance Committee, to approve the Statement of Accounts for 2023/24 by 28thFebruary 2025 following the release of EY’s Final Audit Results report.
2. Noted the changes to the Statement of Accounts which occurred between the draft and provisional accounts for 2023/24. 

The Committee received report ES/2287. Councillor Vince Langdon-Morris, Cabinet Member with responsibility for Resources and Value for Money, introduced the report which presented an updated Anti-Bribery Policy.

The Head of Internal Audit stated that the reported had been updated to be easier to read and understand and an additional section on managing bribery within the supply chain had been included. The document emphasised good governance principles, ensuring that the tone was set by this committee and the Cabinet. No notifications of bribery had been received in the current year, they were quite rare. 

Councillor King asked what training was given to staff on this policy. The Head of Internal Audit confirmed any updates were given to the team leaders forum to share with their teams, and put on SharePoint where they could be accessed by Officers and Councillors. There was also a whistleblowing hotline and support available from the Internal Audit team. Any service areas where bribery was more likely were given extra training and support. 

On the proposal of Councillor Lynch, seconded by Councillor Speca it was 

 RESOLVED

That the Audit and Governance Committee:
1. Reviewed, provided comment upon and endorsed the refreshed Anti-Bribery Policy attached as Appendix A

The Committee received report ES/2288. Councillor Vince Langdon-Morris, Cabinet Member with responsibility for Resources and Value for Money, introduced the report which presented an updated Anti-Money Laundering Policy.

The Head of Internal Audit stated that this document had been refreshed in accordance with legislation. The document was now consistent with documents used by the Council's partners. The Internal Audit team were authorised and trained on investigating money-laundering as this was often linked with other criminal activity. The Head of Internal Audit stated she aimed to make the document more straightforward so people knew exactly who to talk to and when so issues could be dealt with properly. The Head of Internal Audit highlighted the various levels of checks the Council had in place. Service areas which were more likely to see money-laundering were also offered more support and training.

Councillor King asked if there were any automated processes in place to pick up issues or if it was all manual. The Head of Internal Audit confirmed they used a variety of means to track issues. 

Councillor Smithson asked if this covered any issues that might arise from the Freeport. The Head of Internal Audit stated that we were the responsible body for the freeport, but they were responsibility to put the appropriate rules and checks in place and the Council would check that they had this in place. The Head of Internal Audit stated she had not tested this. 

On the proposal of Councillor Speca, seconded by Councillor Lynch it was 

RESOLVED

That the Audit and Governance Committee:
1. Reviewed, provided comment upon and endorsed the refreshed Anti-Money Laundering Policy attached as Appendix A