Agenda item

The Council’s External Auditor (KPMG) will submit their Interim Audit Report 2016/17 summarising the key findings arising from the work undertaken to date in relation to the audit of the Authority’s 2016/17 Financial Statements, the 2016 Value for Money Conclusion, detailing the headline messages arising from that work and indicating that the Authority has implemented all the recommendations raised through previous audit work.

The Council’s External Auditory (KPMG) submitted their Interim Audit Report 2016/17 summarising the key findings arising from the work undertaken to date in relation to the audit of the Authority’s 2016/17 Financial Statements, the 2016 Value for Money Conclusion, detailing the headline messages arising from that work and indication that the Authority had implemented all the recommendations raised through previous audit work.

The report indicated that:

·         The organisational control environment was generally sound and there were no issues to report and work was still progressing in relation to the IT control environment

·         The controls over the key financial systems was sound however, there was a weakness in respect of revoking staff access to the revenue systems once they had left the authority.  The Service Director Finance commented that this had not been a great concern as the individuals were unable to access the IT network once they had left the Authority.  Action had, however, been put in place to address this weakness

·         The Authority had a good history of quality accounts production and in 2016/17 the Authority had a good understanding of the key audit risk areas identified and was making progress in addressing them

·         No specific Value for Money risks had been identified

·         It was noted that in relation to the valuation of Waste Management Asset, appropriate action had been taken to address the recommendation that the latest valuation of the asset should be reflected in the 2016/17 statement of accounts and that all new assets be valued when they come into use in line with the requirements of the Code

RESOLVED that the report be received and the actions taken noted.