Agenda item
MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING(S)
To confirm the minutes of the Audit Committee held on 27th January 2022.
Minutes:
The minutes from the meeting of the 27th January 2022 were agreed to be an accurate record of the meeting and were approved by the Committee.
Matters arising
The Chair, Councillor Whitehead referred to the action point on page 10 of the agenda and asked Mr Kevin Bartle, Interim Corporate Director for Resources and Section 151 Officer to provide an update in relation to the working papers and the accounts.
Mr Bartle informed the Committee that the two sets of account, 2018-19 and 2019-20 had not been signed off under delegated authority due to one or two matters still requiring clarification. He said the points raised were minor but until they were resolved the accounts could not be completed.
Regarding the working papers, Mr Bartle said they had met with KPMG, who still needed to complete their work, on the previous years’ accounts. He said KPMG could have sight of Deloitte’s working papers but there were a few technicalities such as the signing of the ‘hold harmless’ letter for the information to be shared. Mr Bartle said KPMG would need to go through the working papers and make adjustments as required. Thereafter Deloitte’s would need to do another internal review until it is finalised with KPMG.
Mr Bartle continued stating the timeline was difficult to estimate but Deloitte hoped that somewhere between the end of April or beginning of May the 2018-19 and 2019-20 accounts would be concluded. Deloitte would then pass on the papers to KPMG and KPMG needed to be assured that there was absolutely nothing else outstanding, before they can complete their work and issue their certificates. Mr Bartle said it was hoped that all four sets of accounts would be complete by June 2022 at the earliest. Once this was complete, Deloitte hoped to commence their audit of the 2021 - 22 accounts, which they hoped to commence work in May.
Regarding the 2021-22 accounts, Mr Bartle said these were on the Council’s website and work was underway to produce the group accounts, for the main accounts, Tower Hamlets Homes and King George Field Trust accounts. Mr Bartle said he hoped work on these set of accounts would be complete by the statutory deadline in November 2022.
In response to comments and questions from members the following was noted:
- Councillor Edgar asked for clarification as to why KMPG were asking for access to the Deloitte working papers? Mr Bartle explained they were pleased this was happening and said that this would assist KPMG undertake reliance work by using the Deloitte working papers. He said this meant the Finance team would not have to prepare papers again for KPMG. He said this would have taken months to do. He said it had taken some time to negotiate this but both accounting firms are content with this and satisfied it is within the regulations and can be done.
- Regarding the 2019-20 accounts, Mr Bartle explained these could not be signed off as there were a number of prior year adjustments to be made, which KPMG needed to review and consider.
- Mr Bartle confirmed there would be no financial penalty incurred due to the lateness of the accounts, however warned members that there would be additional fees for the work that KPMG were undertaking.
The Chair thanked Mr Bartle for the update.
Supporting documents: