(a)

the key issues arising from the audit included the following – 

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financial statements opinion – only a small number of adjustments of the Council’s draft financial statements had been made; overall the standard of the financial statements were consistent with the previous year and their content and layout had been significantly improved;

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a large number of trivial amendments to the draft financial statements were made following submission to Grant Thornton; although they did not have a noticeable effect on the presentation of the financial statements, they did hinder the audit, particularly the Whole of Government Accounts (WGA) work which required reconciliation of the Council’s (WGA) return to its financial statements;

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a number of further presentational and disclosure changes had been identified which were required by the Code of Practice 2013-14;

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value for money conclusion – based on the review of the Council’s arrangements to secure economy, efficiency and effectiveness in its use of resources, an unqualified value for money conclusion would be given;

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work was on-going on the ‘Whole of Government Accounts’ but would be completed in accordance with the national timetable;

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controls – the audit undertaken by Grant Thornton was not designed to test all internal controls or identify all areas of control weakness; however, where as part of the testing control weaknesses were identified these would be reported to the Council;

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the audit plan identified weaknesses relating to journal entries as there was no authorisation process for journals prior to posting; Grant Thornton’s IT auditors had identified scope to improve the controls in a number of areas, although none of these were considered to be a significant weakness;

(b)

as in previous years, the Council had deviated from the guidance provided by CIPFA regarding the accounting treatment for investments held with Icelandic Banks; if the Council was to follow CIPFA’s guidance there would be a reversal of the loss of £1.5m in investment income accounted for in the financial statements; as the Council had not followed the guidance, Grant Thornton had again raised this issue as an adjusted mis-statement for those charged with governance to consider;

(c)

the Council had been consistent and used a prudent approach in calculating the impairment adjustment within the accounts due to the continued uncertainty over the level of future recovery; impairments had been made in line with actual receipts rather than those anticipated; the recovery will continue to be monitored during 2014/15 and made appropriate judgements in terms of the accounting entries.