The Committee considered the report of the External Auditor summarising the findings from the certification of the Council’s grant claims and returns in 2009/10.  It was noted that:-

·  The Council received funding for specific activities from various grant paying central government departments.  In the case of National Non-Domestic Rates (NNDR), the Council was responsible for paying over monies collected from ratepayers on behalf of a central government department.

·  The Council was responsible for compiling grant claims and returns in accordance with the requirements and timescale set by the relevant departments.  The Audit Commission was required to certify some claims and returns, depending on the value; for example, the Commission did not make certification arrangements for claims and returns below £100,000.

·  In 2009/10, the Audit Commission certified three claims/returns with a total value of £97.1 million.  Of these, the Commission carried out a limited review of the disabled facilities grant (£405,000) and a full review of both the housing and council tax benefit claim (£45,548,781) and the NNDR return (£51,193,154, being the pooled amount payable to central government).  There were no significant issues arising from the audit.

·  The Audit Commission had certified the disabled facilities grant and the NNDR return without any amendments being necessary.  The adjustments required as a result of the identification of errors in the housing benefit and council tax benefit claim had all been made by the Council.

The Committee asked a number of questions of the Officers and the representatives of the Audit Commission relating to, inter alia, the reasons for the detailed level of testing required in respect of the NNDR return; the approach taken to housing benefit fraud and the number of prosecutions; the action which would have been required if additional testing of the benefits cases initially tested had found further errors; the arrangements for the audit of smaller grant claims internally; the wording of paragraph one of the report; and the reasons for the difficulties in obtaining the data required for auditing the new NNDR deferral scheme.

RESOLVED:  That the report of the External Auditor on the certification of grant claims and returns be noted.