Issue - meetings

(a)       That progress of the Grant Claim Certification process for 2018/19 be noted;

(b)       That progress on actions arising from the 2017/18 report be noted; and

(c)       That the changes made to the Grant External Audit Process from 2019/20 be noted.

The Corporate Finance Manager presented a report on progress for the submission of grant claims requiring grant certification from Wales Audit Office (WAO) for the year ended 31 March 2019.  The report also detailed progress on actions arising from the 2017/18 certification process and outlined changes to the Grant External Audit Process from 2019/20.

All 11 grant claims for 2018/19 had been submitted to WAO by the deadline with the audit findings due to be reported to the Committee in March 2020.  Following a national change to auditing arrangements for Local Authority grant schemes, appropriate internal arrangements were being discussed with Internal Audit to include in the Audit Plan for 2020/21 noting the safeguards already in place on the completion of checklists.  The new arrangements would also be informed by the findings from the 2018/19 grant certification process.

Matthew Edwards of WAO said that the response to the recommendations was assuring.  The forthcoming changes to Welsh Government certification requirements from 2019/20 onwards would result in a significant reduction in workload by WAO which would be reflected in the grant certification audit fee.  Whilst audit work was underway on 2018/19 grant claims, positive progress was reported on the first recommendation from the action plan from 2017/18.

In response to a question from Allan Rainford, Matthew Edwards provided clarification on the grant assessment issue previously identified.  He noted that this was a complex part of the assessment process and was an issue in other councils.  WAO officers were currently assessing the implications of those arrangements and would report back to the Committee in March.

RESOLVED:

(a)       That progress of the Grant Claim Certification process for 2018/19 be noted;

(b)       That progress on actions arising from the 2017/18 report be noted; and

(c)       That the changes made to the Grant External Audit Process from 2019/20 be noted.