Agenda item

To consider the 2018/2019 accounts.

The Chairman stated that draft versions of the Statement of Accounts 2018/19 had been seen by the committee but that there had been a few changes. The Chairman invited Lizzie Watkin, Head of Corporate Finance and Deputy s151 Officer, to present the report.

Lizzie Watkin stated that Annual Governance Statement (AGS) 2018/19 had been signed off last July. However, due to outstanding balances and difficulties with the technical accounts there was an addendum to the AGS. On page 42 of the agenda pack the addendum added wording in order to reflect the technical disclosures and qualifications which had been discussed in the previous item. As part of approving the 2018/19 accounts the AGS 2018/19 also had to be approved.

A Letter of Representation for the Statement of Accounts 2018/19 also had some adjustments. The adjusted items were of low material consideration but were above triviality and as such the committee needed to be comfortable with the adjustments made.

In terms of amendments to the Statement of Accounts 2018/19, there were amendments regarding the outstanding issue relating to assets and accumulated appreciation. The valuation basis of PFI liabilities had been adjusted. Technical areas of the accounts such as the balance sheet, movement in reserves, income and expenditure statement, assets, PFI current and long-term liabilities had also been amended. These amendments had no effect on the usable reserves of the Council or on the Council Taxpayer or the money set aside to deliver services.

Final quality assurance checks were undertaken resulting in small amendments to the Statement of Accounts published with the agenda pack. These included a change in wording to the narrative report to set out the underlying principle of the outstanding issue. It was originally noted as an error however it had been pointed out that this wasn’t an error, the issue was that the historic balances could not be substantiated to ensure that the auditors were happy with the balances. Note 13 had been amended to add a footnote to help explain the expenditure funding analysis and the additional analysis in note 13. A duplicated table in note 17 was deleted. Minor amendments to correct misspellings were undertaken. The letter of representation also had a slight amendment to the version published with the agenda pack, one of the unadjusted errors was stated as 1.468 million, this was in fact 1.447 million. That was not the value of the error, rather it was the extrapolation of the error to assess impact. The actual value of the error was £251,000.

Andy Brown, Interim Corporate Director for Resources, added that these accounts were long overdue in coming to the committee for final approval. Also, the position of the ‘except for’ qualification was not ideal, so there were learning points for Wiltshire Council and Deloitte.

Andy Brown also stated that as this item was the accounts for 2018/19 there was an item on the agenda for July 2019 that was related to assurance regarding the Pension Fund accounts and the minutes of the Pension Fund Committee were noted and taken as approved. This position was now being formalised for 2019/20.

The Chairman thanked the officers and noted that the accounts had already been considered in detail by the committee. Although the list of amendments detailed by officers sounded extensive, he felt that there was nothing material that the committee should be concerned about.

Ian Howse, Deloitte, sought to assure the committee that in regards to the Pension Fund Accounts they had been through a rigorous process and were not an issue in terms of Audit.

The Chairman had a question regarding the McCloud judgement as it had been raised as a red risk at the Pension Fund Committee. Lizzie Watkin clarified that this related to Appendix 1 of the letter of representation and was an actuarial assessment of liabilities based on technical information. There was a judgement to make regarding the likelihood of the liability landing with the Council. It was not felt to be a material consideration.

The Chairman proposed a motion, detailed on page 25 of the agenda pack to approve the Statement of Accounts 2018/19. This was seconded by Cllr Stewart Dobson and it was;

Resolved

a)    To approve the addendum to the Annual Governance Statement for 2018/19.

b)    To approve the Letter of Representation for the Statement of Accounts 2018/19.

c)    To approve the final audited Statement of Accounts 2018/19, accepting the auditors ‘except for’ qualification limited to the historic balances on the Revaluation Reserve and historic balances on the Accumulated Depreciation within the Capital Adjustment Account.