Agenda item

To inform Council of a breach of a statutory reporting deadline along with the associated circumstances and the actions taken in response.

Council considered a report of the Monitoring Officer, which informed Members of a breach of a statutory reporting deadline along with the associated circumstances and the actions taken in response.

Council was made aware that this was a report issued under Section 5 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 to inform Members that Tendring District Council, for reasons beyond its control, had failed to publish its certified draft accounts for the 2022/23 financial year by the statutory deadline of 1 June 2023.  The Council was required by law to consider this report and to decide what action (if any) to take in response.

It was reported that the Chief Executive and the Assistant Director (Finance & IT) & Section 151 Officer had both been consulted on this report, as required by the legislation.

Members were aware that a similar report had been presented to Cabinet at its meeting held on 21 July 2023 (Minute 27 referred). Cabinet had resolved that –

a)     the Monitoring Officer’s report and the response of the Council’s Statutory Officers including the Section 151 Officer’s aim to publish the 2022/23 Statement of Accounts by the 31 July 2023 and start the period of public inspection as soon as possible thereafter be endorsed;

b)     it is noted that this report will be presented to the next meeting of Full Council;

c)      the matter set out in this report be included within the Annual Governance Statement 2023, which will reviewed by the Audit Committee as part of their work programme;

d)     Officers be requested to provide an update to the next meeting of Cabinet in October 2023;

e)     Officers continue to work with partners and all relevant organisations to support a satisfactory resolution to the ongoing External Audit delays;  

f)       the Chief Executive be requested to write to the Chief Executive of this Council’s External Auditor to express Cabinet’s regret at the on-going audit delays; and 

g)     the Council’s Finance Team be thanked for working to their continuing high standards, particularly given the current difficult circumstances with audit delays.

Essentially, the Cabinet had endorsed the Section 151 Officer’s intention to publish the certified Statement of Accounts for 2022/23 by the end of July 2023 regardless of whether the External Auditor had completed their work on the 2020/21 and 2021/22 Statement of Accounts. Once published, the public inspection period would then commence which addressed the breach of the Account and Audit Regulations 2015 highlighted above, albeit at a date later than set out within those regulations.

Council was informed that, since Cabinet’s meeting on 21 July 2023, a number of actions / events had occurred with a summary as follows:

·      The Council’s Statement of Accounts for 2022/23 had been published by 1 August 2023, with the period for public inspection therefore commencing on that date. This had brought to a close the period where the Council remained in breach of the statutory requirement to publish the Accounts by 1 June 2023.

·      Reference to this issue had been included within the Annual Governance Statement 2023, which formed part of the Statement of Accounts 2022/23.

·      The Government had now published their intended response to the on-going audit delays with further details set out later on in this report.  Essentially, the aim behind the Government’s proposed approach was to set statutory ‘back stop’ deadlines that required External Auditors to conclude their audit work and publish either qualified or unqualified opinions based on the level of work they had completed by those statutory deadlines.

 It was moved by Councillor M E Stephenson, seconded by Councillor Guglielmiand:-

RESOLVED that Full Council –

(a)    notes the contents of the Monitoring Officer’s report;

(b)    notes that the 2022/23 Statement of Accounts was published on 1 August 2023 with  the period of public inspection starting on that date and that the matters set out in this report were included within the Council’s Annual Governance Statement for 2023;

(c)    notes and welcomes the Government’s proposed response to the on-going External Audit Delays and that where necessary Officers continue to work with partners and all relevant organisations to support this new approach; and

(d)    formally commends the Council’s Finance Team for working to their continuing high standards, particularly given the current difficult circumstances with external audit delays.