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Ms Tina
James presented the report of the External Auditor on the progress
to date against the 2019/20 Audit Plan.
The report also provided a summary of emerging national issues and
developments of relevance to the local government
sector. It was noted that the External
Auditor had completed the interim audit. Whilst some issues were still under discussion, no
significant issues had been identified from this early substantive
testing and documentation of controls.
In
response to questions, Mr Dossett explained that with regard to the
possibility of lobbying the Government to introduce a staggered
timescale for audit reporting so that not every local authority has
to report by the same date, there were two issues. Firstly, the impact of the COVID-19 virus and
secondly, any changes arising from the Redmond Review of Local
Authority Financial Reporting and External Audit. It was recognised that for Officers and auditors,
it was very challenging to meet the existing tight
timescale.
RESOLVED: That the
External Auditor’s progress report, attached as Appendix 1 to
the report of the Head of Finance, be noted.