Issue - meetings
Annual Audit Letter
Meeting: 13/07/2010 - Audit Committee (Item 7)
7 Annual Audit Letter 2008/09 PDF 246 KB
Minutes:
Mr Jon Hayes (District AuditorAudit Commission) presented the Annual Audit letter initially due to be considered at the March 2010 meeting of the Committee. Mr Hayes explained the purpose of the letter highlighting the key messages and recommendations.
In response, Members raised the following points:
Members discussed the problems with removing leavers from the payroll and the findings in respect of journals (Page 23). Members questioned the consequences of these material weakness and the costs to the Council.
Mr Hayes expressed uncertainty over whether these controls were fully working . As a result he would need to carry out additional work to establish whether they were and has had to increase his audit fee accordingly.
Members expressed concern at the time taken to correct the problems in payroll as this problem was identified two years ago. Mr Minesh Jani (Service Head Risk Management) expressed confidence that the controls had been put in place, but would check to determine whether the control was operating as intended as part of this year’s audit plan . He Agreed to come back to the Committee with a summary of leavers showing the work that had been done in this area.
Action: Minesh Jani (Service Head, Risk Management)
In relation to the level 2 use of resources scores, Members considered the recommendations for improvement.
KLOE 2.3 Good Governance (Page 33) - Members drew attention to the actions in the September 2009 Annual Governance Statement (AGS) in particularly those around the departure of the former Chief Executive.
It was Agreedthat an update on this issues and the AGS requirements should be submitted to the Committee following the Mayoral Election in October 2010, to take into account the new system of governance.
Action: Minesh Jani (Service Head, Risk Management)
The Committee considered the Action Plan (Appendix 2).
Mr Finch reported that Corporate Finance had put in place a revised system for closing the accounts, which worked well. The service did manage to successfully close the accounts on time despite unforeseen staffing changes. It was hoped that the new system would lead to better quality and a more efficient close down process. There had also been discussions with Audit Services exploring ways of achieving this.
Mr Finch reported that Corporate Finance was well on target to complete the transition to IFRS. A new project team had been put in place to support this work. A key challenge now was to produce IFRS versions of the balance sheet.
RESOLVED
That the Annual Audit Letter 2008/09 be noted.
Meeting: 29/06/2010 - Audit Committee (Item 61.)
61. Annual Audit Letter 2008/09 PDF 246 KB