Issue - meetings

As detailed in the recommendation.

Councillor Linda Thomas presented the report which set out the audit and regulatory work completed by Audit Wales, since the last annual report, which was published in March 2023.

No formal recommendations had been made during the year by Audit Wales.  There had been proposals for improvement which had arisen from the national and local reviews undertaken by Audit Wales and these had been reported to Governance and Audit Committee, Cabinet and the relevant Overview and Scrutiny Committees as appropriate during the year, with findings from the national and local reviews risk managed as part of regular monitoring.

The Auditor General gave an unqualified true and fair opinion on the Council’s financial statements on 12 April 2024, after the deadline agreed with the Welsh Government of 30 November 2023. The audit was delivered later than in previous years mainly due to the impact of new auditing standard requirements.  These were covered in Audit Wales audit plan and considered by the Governance and Audit Committee on 27 September 2023.

            The Chief Executive added that the areas of review that had been undertaken involved Homelessness, Springing Forward and a Digital Strategy.  The planned work programme was set out within the Audit Wales report, with the assurance and risk assessments having been completed.  There were two thematic reviews and a local review which would be reported to Council once completed by Audit Wales.  

RESOLVED:

That Cabinet is assured by the content and observations of the Auditor General for Wales’ Annual Audit Summary Report 2023.