Agenda item

To present to the Committee the progress on outstanding actions identified by the Committee along with general updates on other issues that fall within the responsibilities of the Committee.

The Committee heard an oral update from  Steve Bladen of  this Council’s external auditors. He explained that they were awaiting formal consultations to be launched by the Department for Levelling Up, Homes and Communities. Additionally, the National Audit Office was due to shortly launch a consultation on a revised code of audit practice. The consultations aimed to establish a backstop date of September 30, 2024, for completing audits up to and including the 2022-2023 fiscal year. Notably, there were numerous audits pending for the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 periods across all suppliers, irrespective of the appointed audit firm.

Members heard how the backstop date might have resulted in qualified audit opinions due to incomplete audit work or disclaimed opinions for audits not initiated. The Minister for Local Government had recently sent a letter to the Chair of the Parliamentary Select Committee for Homes and Communities outlining those details. Whilst the Government’s  formal consultation hadn't yet commenced,  it was anticipated  imminently. Steve Bladen stated that, realistically,  BDO wouldn't have been able to complete the audits for 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 by the end of September. Consequently, they expected those audits to be qualified in some manner. There might have been variations in the value-for-money conclusion, with auditors likely required to assess arrangements over the tendering period.

This summarized the Auditor’s understanding at the time. While no formal consultation had begun, they anticipated its launch within the next week. The proposed backstop date for open audits was September 30, 2024.

TABLE OF OUTSTANDING ISSUES

The Committee heard from the Executive Projects Manager (Governance) as she explained that the Table of Outstanding Issues had been reviewed and updated since it was last considered by the Committee in October 2023.

There were usually two main elements to this report as follows:

1) Updates against general items raised by the Committee

2) Updates against the 2023 Annual Governance Statement Action Plan

In terms of Item 1 above, there were no significant issues raised, with actions remaining in progress or with further details set out below.  In terms of Item 2,  it was proposed to defer an update to the March 2024 meeting of the Committee; to enable the most up to date position to be collated and finalised.

Continuing External Audit delays and an update on the External Auditor’s work on the Council’s Statement of Accounts 2020/21

In response to previous discussions on this issue at both Full Council and directly at the Audit Committee, the Chief Executive had written  to senior management at BDO setting out the Council’s disappointment and frustration with the external audit delays, and requested their assurance on the following matters:

• “They will prioritise the Local Government sector as soon as possible this year;
• They will prioritise the completion of the 2020/21 accounts for Tendring District Council, especially as it is understood there are only two issues outstanding that should be reasonably straightforward to resolve by taking a pragmatic / proportionate approach;
• Their value for money opinion / commentary on our 2020/21 accounts will reflect the Council’s most up to date position, which in turn will support us in continuing to demonstrate sound financial management / stewardship to all of our stakeholders; and
• They will prioritise / balance the associated audit work on the Council’s 2021/22 and 2022/23 accounts to avoid qualified opinions being issued because you have not been able to undertake the necessary assurance work by the proposed statutory deadlines”.

To date no written response had been received.  The Council’s External Auditors had provided  an update  earlier on at the Committee’s meeting.

RIPA – Regulatory Investigatory Powers Act 2000

This Authority had not conducted any RIPA activity in the last quarter, and it was rare that it would be required to do so.

Whistleblowing

This Authority had not received any Whistleblowing information since the adoption of the Whistleblowing Policy in July 2023.  As part of the monitoring arrangements associated with the effectiveness of this policy, relevant updates would be provided to this Committee during the year.

Other matters to highlight

Following the Committee’s consideration of the Corporate Risk Register at its meeting in July 2023, the next six monthly update  had been scheduled for  this meeting.  However, work remained ongoing to collate and finalise timely updates against the various items within the Corporate Risk Register, which would be reported to the March 2024 meeting of the Committee. In effect this put the six monthly reporting cycle back to the original dates of March and September.

After a short discussion the Committee RESOLVED to note  the contents of the report.