Issue - meetings

To consider the report of the External Auditor (Grant Thornton).

The Director, Public Sector Audit of Grant Thornton presented the Audit Findings Report for 2023/24 making the following points:

• it was intended to issue an opinion by the end of February;
• the opinion issued would be an unqualified one;
• there were some areas of work ongoing but this was a small number as most work had been concluded;
• there had been work on significant risks including management override, land, buildings and pension liabilities; and
• some recommendations had been made but these were not material and would not affect the opinion.

The Director, Public Sector Audit of Grant Thornton and Strategic Director for Corporate Resources responded to questions from Members’ in the following terms:

• that there were 10 super-users and whilst this was not unusually high some had finance roles therefore segregation of duty potentially could be an issue;
• the solution would be to have no instances of those with a finance role being a super-user;
• it was for officers to assess whether this posed an acceptable level of risk;
• the pensions adjustment would be updated but was not material;
• value of land and buildings was potentially not market value but replacement cost value and independent valuations would be made upon any disposal;
• housing stock would be allocated a value for similar properties in the area following spot checks;
• MRP showed charge on third party loans and there was a policy based on the annuity rates which would see charges increase in later years therefore this was an expected increase;
• MRP increase reflected the end of 2022/23 position with less interest and more repayment as voluntary repayment of debt was utilised to reduce the balance and 2024/25 capital finance requirement reduced due to ECL write-off; and
• officers were informed annually of the need to declare any interests they may have.

The Audit and Governance committee unanimously received and considered the Audit Findings Report for Exeter City Council 2023/24.