Agenda item

Item of Urgent Business – Published 28 April, 2020.

An update to the Audit Plan and Scoping letter had been received to reflect issues raised by the Coronavirus outbreak.  The Audit Plan had been approved prior to lockdown on 23 March.

The Plan that had been submitted now was exactly the same as the previously approved one except that it included more home working.  In addition, risks have been added to reflect extra costs that all Councils across the country have had to meet.

Mr Javed Akhtar of Grant Thornton advised Members that no changes were proposed to the Audit fee.

Councillor Stubbs made reference to a statement made that value for money and costs would not change but added that in the letter stated that if there were changes, Grant Thornton would advise the Council.  Councillor Stubbs felt that agreeing to this could give the Auditors the opportunity to increase costs if it was felt necessary.

The Chair stated that any proposed changes to fees would have to go to a monitoring board first.  Mr Akhtar confirmed that any proposed fee changes would need to go through the PSSA.

Councillor Sweeney stated that at the previous meeting some Members had voted against a £7000 increase to the fee and asked what would happen if the Council was in dispute with the Auditors.

Mr Akhtar advised that the matter would be referred to the PSSA and the Council’s case would be presented which could result in a renegotiation or a change of Auditors.

Councillor Pickup asked how realistic it was that the deadline to close last year’s accounts would be met.  Also, was there a penalty or extra audit work required.

Ms Willis advised that the timetable had been extended to complete and have the certificate of completion issued.  The Council’s Finance team were still working towards the agreed timetable and there was no reason to think that the deadline would not be met subject to external audit resource availability.

The Council’s Head of Finance, Sarah Wilkes advised that the timetable could possibly slip a couple of weeks due to additional work that had arisen through the Coronavirus.

Ms Willes advised that a letter had been received from the PSSA confirming the scale of fees with additional items that had been agreed nationally.

Councillor Pickup asked what amount of notice would need to be given by Grant Thornton.  The Chair advised that Grant Thornton would be expected to advise the Council before any work was done.

Mr Akhtar confirmed that if the need arose to do any extra work which resulted in a fee variation, they would negotiate with the Council’s Section 151 Officer and then ask the Audit and Standards Committee to approve it.  

Councillor Pickup stated that the Council had to pay extra audit fees last year and asked whether the Audit and Standards Committee had been made aware of that.  The Chair was certain that the Committee had been advised but no figures were given.

Councillor Pickup stated that this Committee should be told of implications and costs as soon as possible even if it was through an email from the Chair.

The Chair agreed and advised that he would ensure that this was done in the future.

Councillor Stubbs appreciated that the current circumstances could result in Grant Thornton needing to carry out extra work.  However, he raised concerns that, should a national audit be undertaken on how the Coronavirus crisis had been dealt with, there was nothing shown in the budget ans it was still a significant cost to the Council.

Resolved:     That the information be agreed and the comments noted.