Issue - meetings

That the report and Council’s response be noted.

Mr. John Herniman of the Wales Audit Office (WAO) introduced the report on the Annual Financial Audit outline for the audit of the Council’s accounts for 2013/14 and those of the Clwyd Pension Fund.  He gave an overview of the approach to be taken by the audit team in assessing risk and obtaining evidence to draw conclusions, and summarised the key risks and proposed actions within the report, some of which applied to other Local Authorities.

An estimate of the audit fee for 2013/14 was not yet available as legislative changes had prompted a review of the WAO charging methodology which was awaiting approval by the Welsh Government.  Mr. Herniman said that an estimate could be provided to officers the following week, with an update at the next meeting.

The Head of Finance confirmed that preparation work was underway with WAO colleagues to plan for the audit work.

In response to a query from Councillor Haydn Bateman, Mr. Herniman explained that it was normal practice for a fee to be applied for the audit of each individual grant claim.

Following a question by Councillor Arnold Woolley on new arrangements within the WAO, it was confirmed that electors’ rights remained the same and that the legislative changes related to governance issues impacting on the WAO itself.

Councillor Woolley drew comparisons between the auditing of accounts at County Council and Town/Community Council level, and raised concerns that any misstatements below £100K in the County Council’s accounts were not reported.  Mr. Herniman explained that whilst absolute assurance could be given at Town/ Community Council level, this was not possible for an organisation of the scale of the County Council and would impact significantly on the audit fee.  The standard practice in these cases was for the auditing profession to give opinions based on the concept of materiality where only material misstatements were identified in the County Council’s accounts.

Councillor Woolley referred to the disclaimer on the website for the North Wales Residual Waste Treatment Project (NWRWTP) in relation to its accounts for 2011/12 and 2012/13.  Mr. Herniman explained that this was a standard disclaimer to verify that the opinion provided by WAO had been based on the paper version of the accounts and did not apply to that published on the website, which could be subject to amendment.

The Finance Manager - Technical Accountancy added that the same disclaimer applied to the published Statement of Accounts on the Council’s website, together with that of Taith and any other public body.

RESOLVED:

That the report and Council’s response be noted.