Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor B Price

The minutes of the meeting held on 23^rd August 2023 were approved and signed as a correct record.

(Moved by Councillor B Clarke and seconded by Councillor S Daniels)

There were no declarations of Interest.

(Report of the External Auditors to recommend approval of the Audit Findings Report and Management Representation Letter)

The Audit Findings Report and Management Representation Letter were presented by Will Guest from the External Auditors.

·         The auditor discussed key points:

·         Pg 4 set out items that were outstanding at the time of writing the report.

·         Debtors, creditors and operating expenditure testing is now completed and management have provided responses to the business rates appeals provision

·         Financial instruments disclosure is completed subject to final reviews.

·         Anticipate to sign non modified opinion  by the end of October once reassurances have been received from the Pension Fund Board Auditor

·         Anticipating issue auditors Annual Report in relation to the value for money work by the end of January 2024 a letter is included at the end of the report to the chair setting out the reasons for this. 

·         A finding against the significant risk identified in the audit plan set out in page 8. In relation to management overriding control the journals work is complete subject to final review.  We have not identified any issues at this stage and in relation to the estimates I will cover separately.

·         In relation to fraudulence revenue and expenditure recognition identified relating  invoices received after the year end and relates to an equans invoice.  Whilst there isn’t accrual in the financial statement, management couldn’t prove that the invoice we selected was within that accrual.   Looked at what we think the impact could be and isolated on Equans invoices as there were no issues elsewhere, recorded in appendix C the impact wasn’t material and below the performance materiality. 

·         Work still to be completed on the valuation of council dwellings or land and buildings, awaiting response regarding one matter on council dwellings from the valuer.    

·         Land and buildings identified an area with regard to the valuations being incorrectly marked as the land element of the building and vice versa which had an impact on the revaluation reserves. Whilst the figures on the balance sheet was correct the re-evaluation reserved was incorrect because of the valuation being marked to the wrong asset.  The secondary relates to the valuation of garages which were over stated by 565k and this produced double counting of the land value, management are not proposing  to adjust for that as set out in appendix C

·         Identified that rental income in relation of land and buildings have been miscoded to investment property and the impact is 68k and just affects where it sits on the CIES 

Members sought clarity on the following

In terms of that example to that mistake what lessons have been learnt and what steps are being taken to make sure it doesn’t happen again.  It just comes down to management taking a step back and reviewing the valuation report again and looking at movements to see if anything jumps out. 

(Report of the Interim Executive Director Finance and S151 Officer)

Report of the  interim Executive Director Finance to approve the Statement of Accounts (the Statement) for the financial year ended 31st March 2023 following completion of the external audit.

(Report of the Assistant Director, Finance)

Report of the Assistant Director Finance to report on the Risk Management process and progress for Quarter 1 of the 2023/24 financial year.

(Report of the Assistant Director, Partnerships)

Report of the  Assistant Director - Partnerships to consider the annual report to demonstrate compliance with the Council’s Code of Practice for carrying out surveillance under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA)

(Report of the Assistant Director, Partnerships)

Report of the Assistant Director - Partnerships to endorse the Council’s Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement 2022/23

(Report of the Assistant Director, People)

The report of the  Assistant Director - People to advise the committee of the contents of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s Annual Review letter for the year ended 31st March 2023 in relation to complaints against Tamworth Borough Council.

(Discussion Item)

The Committee reviewed the timetable and agreed the following changes:

Risk Management Quarterly Update move from October to November

Introduce Azet’s the Auditors to the Committee in November.