Issue - meetings

This report presents the Annual Audit Letter for 2013/14, which was produced by the Council’s external auditors KPMG.

that the contents of the Annual Audit Letter be noted.

Councillor Pavey (Deputy Leader) presented a report from the Chief Finance Officer which set out the Annual Audit Letter for 2013/14 produced by the Council’s external auditors KPMG. The Annual Audit Letter had been considered by the Audit Committee at its meeting in November 2014 and the Cabinet was asked to note the contents of the Letter which summarised the key finding from the audit of the authority’s 2013/14 financial statements and Value for Money (VFM) conclusions. An unqualified opinion had been issued regarding the council’s financial statements on 30 September 2014, which meant that the statements were considered to give a true and fair view of the financial position of the authority as at 31 March 2014. A few minor issues had been identified and these were detailed in the Annual Audit Letter before the meeting. An unqualified conclusion on the authority’s arrangements to secure value for money for 2013/14 was also issued on 30 September 2014. This meant that KPMG were satisfied that the council had proper arrangements for securing financial resilience and challenging how it secured economy, efficiency and effectiveness. Accordingly, KPMG had issued the Audit Certificate on 30 September 2014 to confirm completion of the 2013/14 audit.

At the invitation of the Chair, Councillor Warren raised concerns regarding the headlines chosen by the auditors and explained that he had received advice from the Audit Commission that this was at this matter was at the discretion of the auditors.

RESOLVED:

that the contents of the Annual Audit Letter be noted.