Issue - meetings

(a)       That the draft Statement of Accounts 2016/17 (which includes the Annual Governance Statement approved by the Committee at its June 2017 meeting) be noted; and

(b)       That the Committee approve the arrangements for the ‘drop in sessions’ that have been arranged for early September and note the ability to discuss any aspect of the Statement of Accounts with officers or the Wales Audit Office throughout July, August and September, prior to the final audited version being brought back to the Committee for recommendation to Council for final approval on 27 September 2017.

The Corporate Finance Manager and Finance Manager - Technical Accountancy presented the draft Statement of Accounts 2016/17 (subject to audit) for information.  These comprised the Group accounts - including its wholly owned subsidiary North East Wales (NEW) Homes - and the Clwyd Pension Fund.  The final audited accounts would be received on 27 September for approval and recommendation to County Council on the same day, prior to the statutory publishing deadline of 30 September.  This was a corporate document produced from significant work across the Authority, in particular the Technical Accounting team in Corporate Finance.

A presentation was made covering the following areas:

·         Purpose and Background

·         Contents and Overview

·         Responsibility

·         Links to Budget Monitoring

·         Headlines - Council Fund, Reserves at Year End, Capital and Housing Revenue Account (HRA)

·         Changes to 2016/17 Statement of Accounts

·         Principal Statements

·         Accounts Governance Group

·         Progress in addressing prior year issues

·         Timeline and next Steps

·         Impact of earlier deadlines on materiality

Mr John Herniman of Wales Audit Office (WAO) explained the general approach to the audit in taking an overall view on materiality to inform judgements on the accuracy of the accounts and that the inevitable reporting of misstatements may not necessarily require amendments.  He welcomed the arrangements for the Accounts Governance Group to have oversight of the process.  He highlighted the introduction of earlier statutory publishing deadlines for future accounts as a significant challenge to all and suggested that the Council may wish to consider trialling this at an earlier stage.  The effect of early closure would mean a greater emphasis on estimated data and possibly more minor errors in the accounts but the focus was on ensuring they were materially correct and therefore the Council might not want to amend for minor errors.

Mr Matthew Edwards of WAO confirmed receipt of the draft accounts within the deadline and thanked the Finance officers for providing information to support the accounts which contributed to the efficiency of the audit.  Any key issues arising from the audit would be summarised in the report due at the next meeting.

The Chief Executive spoke about the effective role of the Accounts Governance Group on the accounts work.  In welcoming the advice from WAO colleagues on meeting the challenge on earlier deadlines, he gave assurance that resources in the Finance team would be monitored to ensure they were sufficient to discharge the statutory duties.

In response to concerns raised by Councillors Chris Dolphin and Glyn Banks, Mr Herniman clarified that the proposed change to accounts publication dates for Welsh local authorities was a Welsh Government decision which followed changes made in England driven by UK Treasury to produce the UK’s Whole of Government Accounts quicker.  Whilst acknowledging the challenges, there was a benefit in having an earlier understanding of the year end position.  On his earlier comments, he explained that accounts inevitably included some degree of estimated data and minor issues did not generally impact on the opinion of material correctness which was the main consideration.  When asked about the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18