Agenda item

NCC Audit Results report 2019-20 – Verbal Update

NBC Audit Results report 2019-20 – Verbal Update

NCC 2020-21 Audit Plan – Verbal Update

NBC 2020-21 Audit Plan  - Attached

RESOLVED: The Committee noted the report.

The Chair invited Debbie Hanson from EY to give a verbal update. The committee was informed that there were some further adjusted and unadjusted differences identified since the last report presented to the Committee in September. The unadjusted differences were mainly related to differences in the pension liability identified by the pension fund auditor, which was related to the impact of the availability of more up to date information related to estimated figures.

With regards to the NCC audit, there were some outstanding areas, but the majority had been completed.  Some issues had been found, which included incorrect debtors’ codes being used, although there had been no bottom-line impact from these.

Debbie Hanson from EY advised that planning for the 2021 audit had already commenced in lower risk areas. The committee was asked if they wished to see a copy of the work carried out before it was brought to the committee in January.

The committee agreed that they would like to see a copy of the work as soon as it was ready.

A councillor asked whether the NCC audit would include the LGSS Service, Debbie Hanson advised that at the moment there would be change in their approach to LGSS.

Mark Rutter from EY presented the next part of the item and noted that the main issues with outstanding audits had been delay in responses to queries that had been sent to officers. There had been some findings which would be provided to the committee.

With regards to NBC and materiality, there had been an increase from £2.2 million to £4.5 million which represented a 2% expenditure. It was noted that 4% was expected due to the size of the organisation.

Significant risk had been found with regards to land and buildings, the committee was advised that the council had a varied portfolio of assets, it was noted that council dwellings and heritage assets had been excluded from this.

The debt from the Northampton Town Football Club was mentioned, there had been limited progress in this area.

Councillors made the following comments.

• Business rates had been mentioned in the report.

• Had the football club (Sixfields site) incurred any further expense, such as legal costs? Would this influence the signing off the budget?
• It was noted that the provided paper report had stated that there had been a ‘fundamental governance oversight’, which had been a direct quote from the Internal Audit report.
• It was advised that the committee would need assurances regarding the valuation of assets.
• It was asked what had been done about the limited additional progress carried out.
• Two hotels were listed as assets in the report, which two were they?

The following comments were made by the Executive Director of Finance.

• Work being done on business rates would give them more resilience going forward.
• With regards to Sixfields some costs would still be incurred by the continued engagement of lawyers, but these would be immaterial.

Mark Rutter from EY advised that the two hotels discussed in the report were the Marriott Hotel and Park Inn.

With regards to the Daventry District Council audit Debbie Hanson from EY made the following comments.

• The audit was substantially complete, some differences with the pension liability figure had been noted.
• There would be an internal meeting to agree a consistent approach to all the previous councils’ pensions.