Agenda item

To receive the Council’s Annual Statement of Accounts.

Sin-Yee Tang (Senior Finance Analyst) introduced a report detailing progress in approving the Council’s Statement of Accounts for 2020/21 and providing a draft Letter of Representation for consideration in advance of final sign off and Grant Thornton being able to issue a final audit opinion.

In considering the report the Committee noted:

·                Its role in considering any issues raised by the External Auditors as part of the process for approving the Council’s annual statement of accounts, with the basis for this being the “report to those charged with governance” also referred to as the ISA260 report. The Council’s external auditors, Grant Thornton, produced the report following completion of the audit of accounts with the report intended to identify any changes to the accounts, unadjusted mis-statements or material weaknesses in controls identified during the audit work. It also provided the findings from the value for money conclusion for the year.

·                That following consideration of the final audit findings report, Grant Thornton had indicated they intended to give an unqualified opinion on the Council and Pension Fund accounts and a clear value for money conclusion.

·                That due to final changes needing to be made to the i4B and First Wave Housing Accounts, it had not been possible to present the final accounts at the meeting and it had therefore been recommended that subject to the agreed adjustments being made, approval of the final Statement of Accounts be delegated to the Chair of the Audit & Standards Committee.

The Committee was then invited to raise questions on the report, which are summarised below:

·                Having noted the anticipated results of the audit and final adjustments being made it was agreed, in response to a suggestion made by the Chair, that a final written assurance be provided for the Chair of the Audit & Standards Committee that all outstanding matters had been addressed and complied with prior to final sign off of the accounts.

·                A question was asked around cybersecurity issues and steps taken to mitigate against this risk. In response, the Committee were advised of the measures which had been introduced to address this risk including the significant investment recently agreed as part of the Council’s IT Investment Strategy.  Details were also provided on a cybersecurity workshop hosted by PWC on which progress was subject to current review, with the Council’s Internal Audit Team and Grant Thornton also involved in reviewing implementation of the Council’s new Oracle Cloud system.  As a result of the issues raised it was agreed that a report would be provided for a future meeting on the actions being taken around cyber security. 

With no further issue raised the Committee took the opportunity to thank all officers involved in the preparation of the accounts during such a challenging period with the pandemic.  It was noted that despite these additional pressures, Brent had been one of the first Local Authorities to have completed their statement of accounts and be in the position for the External Auditors to now be completing their closing procedures enabling final sign off, well in advance of the statutory deadline on 30 November 21.

The Chair thanked officers for the report and information provided at the meeting and it was RESOLVED

(1)     To note the key issues and recommendations within the report.

(2)     To note the corrected audit differences.

(3)     To approve the draft Letter of Representation to Grant Thornton and recommend to Audit & Standards Committee that final approval and sign off of the Statement of Accounts and Letter or Representation be delegated to the Chair of the Audit & Standards Committee, subject to a written assurance being provided that all outstanding matters and adjustments had been addressed and made.