Agenda item

The Committee considered the Statutory Accounts and Pension Fund 2020/21 - External Audit Findings Report.

Peter Barber, Key Audit Partner and Helen Lillington, Senior Audit Manager from Grant Thornton, the Council's external auditor presented the report and commented that:

·         The majority of the audit work had been undertaken and it was hoped to complete the outstanding work by the deadline for the submission of the Accounts. It was unfortunate that the audit work had been delayed from the outset due to work associated with councils who had failed to finalise their Accounts on time to meet the deadline last year. This Council and the Pension Fund had been selected as a sub-sect of Accounts that would be prioritised for this year

·         There had been a good level of co-operation with the Council’s Finance Team and the stage had now been reached where there was confidence in the quality of the paperwork provided. However, based on guidance from the regulators, external audit’s approach had been more questioning/challenging than in previous years

·         The work on the audit of Pension Fund Accounts was nearly complete and no material errors had been found. The work on the audit of the Council’s accounts was slightly behind schedule but audit time had been set aside to complete the necessary work to attempt to meet the deadline

·         Extra controls/safeguards had had to be introduced because the Senior Audit Manager had been working on this Council’s and the Pension Fund’s Accounts for the maximum term permitted to work on a particular council’s Accounts under the regulations

·         There were no material errors found in the Council’s Accounts to date. An increased level of materiality had been assessed which reflected additional expenditure throughout the year. This was not an unusual change compared to other councils

·         The deadline for the work associated with the Value for Money Audit had been extended for a further 3 months to the end of December. Work had already commenced on this audit and the outcome of this audit would be reported to this Committee.

In the ensuing debate, the following points were made:

·         The Chairman acknowledged the amount of work undertaken by the Finance Team and Grant Thornton to get the Accounts to this point despite the impact of Covid 19 and home-working albeit not yet finalised. He also welcomed the fact that no material errors had been found to date

·         Did the Finance team have a process to understand and address lessons learned following the publication of the Accounts? Rachael Hart, Financial Reporting Manager responded that following the sign off of the Accounts, the Finance team reviewed its processes to establish lessons to be learned in order to improve practices for next year. Peter Barber added that external audit would also liaise with the Finance Team to look at lessons learned. Michael Hudson, Chief Financial Officer acknowledged the co-operation between Grant Thornton and the Finance Team.

RESOLVED that theGrant Thornton Audit Findings Report for the Worcestershire County Council Statutory Accounts 2020/21 and Worcestershire County Council Pension Fund Accounts 2020/21 be noted.