Mr Kevin Bartle, Interim Divisional Director for Finance, Procurement and Audit briefly outlined the position regarding the 2018/19 and 2019/20 accounts in the public part of the meeting.

Mr Bartle said he and his team were very disappointed not to have the accounts finalised for this meeting and regretted this very much. He said the reasons for the delay and the difficulties experienced would be discussed in part two of the agenda when discussing the Independent Review report. Mr Bartle said he hoped to have answers to the queries raised by Deloitte’s, which run into the hundreds by January 2021.

On a more positive note, Mr Bartle said the Pensions Fund Accounts were in a relatively good position for both years, with just a handful of outstanding queries which he hoped would be finalised shortly.

Members made the following comments in relation to the report:

·         Councillor Perry, the Chair of the Pensions Committee, briefed members that she had been informed there were two outstanding adjustments to make to the Pension Fund Accounts. She said whilst this was encouraging the bigger issue related to the production of the main accounts.

·         Councillor Francis stated he appreciated the reasons why some aspects of the production of the accounts were to be taken in private session, however given the issues had been on-going for eighteen months, it was important for the Committee and the officers to publicly explain the reasons for the delay of the 2018/19 accounts. Councillor Francis continued stating some of the issues raised related to wider problems than that of the report commissioned. He said there were issues of governance that need to be addressed and resolved.

·         The Chair, Councillor Val Whitehead said a report had been commissioned to review independently the reasons for the delay in the production of the 2018/19 accounts and it would not be appropriate to discuss the findings of the report in the public domain. She said it was important for Members to have a frank and open discussion with officers in the private session and for officers to respond to the recommendations made therein. Councillor Whitehead stated that the independent report would be made public in the January agenda papers.

·         Councillors Perry and Wood stated they concurred with Councillor Francis’ viewpoint, however believed the report at present ought to be discussed privately, in order to solve the issues with the accounts before a public debate.

The Audit Committee RESOVLED to have a fuller discussion in the private session of the meeting and

1.    Noted the continuing progress made on, and the plans for completion of the audits for both the 2018/19 and 2019/20 Statement of Accounts.