Issue - meetings

To receive a presentation from the Section 151 Officer and the External Auditors relating to the Financial Statements 2018/19.

The Committee received a presentation from the Section 151 Officer and Helen Thompson, Ernest Young External Auditors detailing why it had not been possible to sign off the final Financial Statements for 2018/19 by 31^st July 2019 deadline.

It was noted that the 31^st July deadline was not a statutory completion deadline but one that accounts must be published by, with either an audited opinion or a statement as to why they had not yet been audited, therefore the accounts would be published by 31^st July 2019 with a statement that had been agreed by both the Council and Ernest Young as to why there was not an audited opinion.  The Committee also noted that there were no legal or financial consequences of the accounts not being audited by this date.

The Committee noted that Ernest Young had been unable to complete the audit on time due to significant staffing issues at senior levels and not being able to successfully recruit had impacted on the work of the organisation.  Aside it was noted that a number of authorities were in a similar position this year as there appeared to be a national issue in terms of recruitment of external auditors.   

The Committee noted the reasons that had been provided by Ernest Young and the commitment to have finalised the audit by the end of September 2019.  It was agreed that in order to facilitate the full signing off of the accounts the scheduled Governance Committee for 9^th September would be moved to 30^th September 2019.