Agenda item

To consider the External Audit Completion Report 2023/2024 (report of KPMG enclosed).

Consideration was given to the External Audit Completion Report 2023/2024, produced by KPMG.

The External Audit Director (KPMG) introduced the report by stating that a draft version of the report had been presented to members at the 19 November 2024 Governance and Audit Committee meeting. The paper presented to the committee at the current meeting represented the final version of the report. Information previously received by the panel was presented in green text for ease of differentiation to updated information in the final version.

The External Audit Director (KPMG) stated that:

• The audit was complete, and KPMG were in a position to sign their opinion in advance of the statutory deadline;
• The key updates of the report included:
  • Confirmation that the audit of the Financial Statements had been undertaken within the context of the statutory backstop date of 28 February 2025 (pages 4 and 5 of the report);
  • That a disclaimed audit opinion would be provided due to the following two issues:
    • The prior year audit had not been completed and therefore sufficient and appropriate audit evidence had not been obtained in respect of opening and comparative information contained within the Financial Statements; and
    • KPMG had not been able to obtain sufficient audit evidence of floor areas and building condition information used within the council’s valuation which had prevented the conclusion of year end balances relating to land and buildings.
  • That the reset and recovery phase for local audit was outlined from page 26 of the report. Based on the level work completed, positive progress had been made to rebuild assurance which would benefit the council’s audits in future years;
  • That a dashboard of key audit reportable findings was detailed from page 6 of the report. Since the draft report had been presented, KPMG had identified two further uncorrected errors, two corrected classification errors and one additional corrected disclosure amendment;
  • That following the Financial Statements audit, five additional ‘controls’ recommendations had been raised. Four of which related to improvements regarding the ‘valuation of land and buildings’ process, and one to the ‘related party’ process; and
  • That four performance improvement observations had been made relating to the ‘value for money’ arrangements, the conclusion of which had been positive with no significant weaknesses identified in the use of resources at the council.

Members considered the report and made the following comments:

• Members referred to the ‘key accounting estimates and management judgements – overview’ on page 17 of the report and queried a potential mismatch of scoring for the ‘post-retirement benefit obligations’.
  • The External Audit Director (KPMG) agreed that the scoring had been slighted misplaced and would be updated.

• Members referred to ‘audit misstatements – disclosures’ on page 37 of the report and queried the number of undisclosed transactions that had been identified as being above the threshold.
  • The External Audit Director (KPMG) confirmed that, under the threshold of £10,000, two transactions had been identified which totalled £3700. This aspect featured within the recommendation stipulated in the report.

AGREED:

That the External Audit Completion Report 2023/2024 be noted.