Agenda item

That the proposed Regulatory Programme for Performance Audit of the Wales Audit Office for the period April 2013 to March 2014 be accepted.

The Chief Executive introduced the proposed Regulatory Programme for Performance Audit for the Wales Audit Office (WAO) for the period April 2013 to March 2014.  Following receipt of the WAO report on the audit of the financial statements received at the previous meeting, this report sought to provide assurance on governance arrangements together with improvement planning and compliance work on national guidance.  A report on the WAO Improvement Assessment Letter would be submitted to the next meeting following consideration by Cabinet and the Corporate Resources Overview & Scrutiny Committee.

In highlighting the WAO fees shown within the report, which were generally based on Council sizes, the Chief Executive felt these to be reasonable and said that good progress had been made on reducing the risk-based fees in years past.

The Chair said it was important that fees were appropriate for the audits undertaken and asked about the impact of any additional fees arising from the new Measure.  The Chief Executive explained that £137K was not a new cost and that some performance work of the WAO under newer legislation simply replaced the old.

On pointing out an inaccuracy which had been reported in the local press, Ms. A. Hughes of WAO clarified that the fee of £215K had applied only to audit work on checking figures in the financial statements whereas the total of £354K included performance audit work.

Mr. P. Williams questioned whether the WAO considered the adequacy of resources in assessing the Council’s capacity to meet its objectives and he felt that a capacity review should be undertaken to ensure the delivery of the Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP).  Ms. Hughes was positive that her colleagues would take into account resources capacity and was aware of discussions between colleagues and the Chief Executive on the MTFP and activities undertaken by the Council to address the significant financial challenges.

Councillor A. Woolley asked about the availability and review of the Work Plan and Timetable mentioned in the report, which indicated the range of performance audit work undertaken by WAO and relevant regulators.

The Chief Executive said that there were capacity issue challenges in managing and changing the organisation.  It was acknowledged that capacity would reduce over time as the size of the organisation reduced.  The budget gap position was now significantly worse and a report on the MTFP, which was due to be received at the next Cabinet meeting, was up-to-date in predicting local financial pressures.  In response to Councillor Woolley’s question, there was not a broken-down quarterly work plan although regular meetings were held to review audit work.  Ms. Hughes confirmed that discussions were ongoing between the Council and WAO to ensure the timely delivery of audit work.  The Chief Executive stated that the Council generally complied with the timely delivery of reports.

The Chief Executive confirmed that for Improvement Studies, the WAO may decide to carry out work on a sample of Councils or across all 22 depending on the size of the study.  Subject to the nature of the study, specific local feedback or overall findings would be provided.

RESOLVED:

That the proposed Regulatory Programme for Performance Audit of the Wales Audit Office for the period April 2013 to March 2014 be accepted.