Agenda item

The Interim Deputy Section 151 Officer presented a covering report summarising BDO’s progress report (Appendix A) in relation to their audit of the Council’s Statement of Accounts for 2019/20 including an update on the timetable to complete the audit which was broadly in line with that last reported in January 2024. BDO’s key outstanding tasks related to their internal review process, and in that context, it was noted that there were no matters outstanding from the Council’s perspective.

BDO have proposed to issue the annual report and commentary on VFM for the 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23 Statement of Accounts by September 2024. This will be subject to the outcomes of consultations on changes to the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015 to introduce the backstop arrangements, and the National Audit Office Code of Audit Practice to support auditors to meet the backstop date and promote more timely reporting of their work on value for money arrangements.

Finally in respect of the breakdown of the 2019/20 additional fees, despite assurances provided at the last meeting BDO in referencing the fee in their report, had still not provided an indicative figure as to the final fee.

Michael Asare Bediako, BDO confirmed that they had no concerns as to meeting the deadline reported at the last meeting, and therefore they remained on track to complete the 2019/20 Accounts by the end of August 2024. In respect of the additional fees for the said year he apologized for omitting in error from the published report, the indicative figure for the additional fee, which he verbally reported as £233k. He qualified that this was not the final fee as there was still more work to be done, and it was necessary to provide management with a detailed breakdown of how the final fee breaks down.

Having been challenged as to when the Council could expect the final additional fee, he stated that he expected Steve Blandon, the senior Partner at BDO now leading the audit, to be in a position to present it at the next meeting in June.

The Chair expressed her disappointment that Mr Blandon was not present this evening as she wanted to challenge him on a number of issues including when he anticipated completing the partner review and whether in the review, he had identified anything requiring more work to be done from BDO’s end. As far as Mr Asare Bediako was aware from the review work he had not raised any issues or concerns, albeit there were a number of minor issues that were being concluded which officers were aware of. All indications were that he would complete the review work by June, allowing sufficient time to prepare the final report and meet the August deadline to conclude the audit.

The reported additional fee was a substantial amount and BDO were asked as to whether it was their standard practice not to finalise their costs and provide a breakdown so late into the audit, especially seeing the Council needed to budget for such large sums. The Committee having pushed for the information over a number of meetings put on record their disappointment and frustration that it was still not forthcoming. BDO acknowledged the points made and hoped to be in a position as early as tomorrow to provide the breakdown of the costs incurred to date, added to which they should be able to realistically estimate the further costs likely to accrue barring any unforeseen eventualities.  

Referencing the timetable in the Appendix which mirrored that presented at the last meeting, Members repeated comments made then, that the programme of work there did not suggest there was any real sense of urgency to complete the audit, to the extent that Members remained unconvinced that the 2019/20 Accounts would be signed off by August 2024, which was only a month before the anticipated backstop date. BDO again would not commit to completing the audit any sooner than August but were hopeful of finishing ahead of that date to give the Council the opportunity to publish the Accounts and any outstanding disclaimed opinions that BDO issue.

Turning to the current position regarding the 2018/19 additional fee, BDO confirmed that having previously presented the figure to both officers and this Committee it was now with PSAA awaiting their decision. The Chair clarified that despite the previous Section 151 Officer signing off on the additional fee, PSAA had been made aware of this Committee’s concerns.

The Committee noted the report.