Issue - meetings

Kevin Suter (Ernst Young) introduced the interim report, confirming that the auditors had not identified any significant weaknesses in the council’s VFM arrangements and no significant risks had been identified. He summarised that they had nothing to report to the committee by exception.

Mr Suter responded to members’ questions including the implications of the likely issue of a disclaimer opinion on the 2022/23 financial statements, due to limited amount of work EY have undertaken on the financial statements audit, and the knock-on effect on for the current and future years.  The Corporate Head of Finance agreed to provide a response outside of the meeting on the possible impact on local authorities’ credit ratings due to the issuance of disclaimer opinions.

RESOLVED:

1.                         That the Committee look forward to the refund of audit fees in relation to 2022/23 financial statements and express concern about the impact on local authorities as a whole due to widespread  unqualified opinions regardless of the quality of a council’s accounts; in addition to creating possible unnecessary concerns for our residents and suppliers doing business with us.

2.                         That the auditor’s interim report be accepted and it be noted that, due to limited audit work, it is likely that the auditors will issue a disclaimer opinion on the 2022/23 financial statements.