Agenda item

Unaudited Statement of Accounts 2018/19.

Minutes:

Members considered the Council’s unaudited Statement of Accounts for the 2018/19 financial year, which highlighted the overall financial position of the Council for the year.

 

Whilst there was a requirement to obtain certification of the accounts by 31st July from the Chief Financial Officer, there was no longer the necessity to present them to Members at this stage. However, the Council continued the presentation of the unaudited accounts to the Committee in favour of it being good practice. The final Statement of Accounts however, would be considered at the meeting in July prior to sign off and publication.

 

The accounts would be subject to external audit from 1 to 28 June and it was expected that the final audit opinion would be finalised by 12 July 2019 and would be available for public scrutiny from 1 June to 12 July, 2019 and were placed on the Councils website from this date in line with the Government’s policy of increased transparency.

 

Members were invited to make any comments or ask any questions of the Officers in relation to the report and concerns were voiced that they felt it was a very lengthy and complex report that members of the public with no knowledge of the subject would struggle to understand. It was however felt to be a good report, but just needed some greater clarity in the narrative.

 

Members felt there was a lot of information to include within one report but they were advised that a lot was also filtered through the four quarterly monitoring reports received by OSMC and Cabinet, which provided relevant information and updates throughout the financial year. However, officers acknowledged the points being made by Members and wold try to reflect this in future narratives.

 

Additional comments and questions were raised in relation to making savings in the future, with queries on bringing services in-house, environmental vehicles and the use of more modern technology to save on officer time. Members were assured that the budgets were closely monitored and now worked more closely alongside the Children’s Trust in order to keep a tighter hold on financial problems. The arrangements were proving to be working well.

 

The external auditor concluded by stating that as far as the Councils accounts were concerned, Doncaster Council was doing well, and it was acknowledged that their accounts were clearer than most, and the production of them ran smoothly and good progress continued to be made. He stated that they were used as examples of best practice elsewhere, e.g. for disclosures to the accounts. However, one issue that needed to be kept in sight was that of the ‘McLeod judgement’, which might have future impact on budgets. Grant Thornton had spoken to the Assistant Director of Finance with regard to this and further actuarial advice would be sought on this. The Chair advised that once this had been received the Committee would be updated further with regard to this.

 

RESOLVED that Members of the Audit Committee note the 2018/19 Unaudited Statement of Accounts.

 

 

 

 

 

Supporting documents: