Issue - meetings

The Director of Finance and Business Improvement introduced his report setting out the audited Statement of Accounts for 2015/16 for approval by the Committee in accordance with the Accounts and Audit Regulations, the External Auditor’s Audit Findings Report and the Letter of Representation written by the Council to the External Auditor.  It was noted that:

·  None of the amendments to the Accounts identified during the audit process had affected the Council’s General Fund Balance as at 31 March 2016.  A number of other minor changes had also been made to improve the presentation and clarity of the Statement of Accounts.

·  The External Auditor’s Audit Findings Report also included a review of Value for Money which concluded that in all significant respects the Council had put in place proper arrangements to secure value for money in its use of resources for the year ended 31 March 2016.

·  The External Auditor intended to issue an unqualified opinion on the 2015/16 Statement of Accounts and an unqualified Value for Money conclusion.

In response to questions, the Officers/representatives of the External Auditor explained that:

·  In terms of Short Term Debtors and the Provision for Bad Debts, particularly in relation to Council Tax and Business Rate payers, the Revenues and Benefits team had strict follow-up procedures in place if an instalment was not paid on the due date.  The collection rate was very high and monitored closely.  More information relating to the collection statistics would be circulated to all Members of the Committee and to the Parish Council representatives.

·  As long as the tax payer remained liable, the Council would continue to issue reminders and take steps to collect payments.  Once a debt was over one year old, a 40% provision would be created for it in the accounts and once it was over six years old, 100% provision would be made for it.  The debt would not necessarily be written off, but for accounting purposes, there was a need to recognise the risk in the accounts that it might not be possible to recover the debt.  The provision made in the accounts was based on the age profile of the debts, and the revenue system would identify how many debts were over one year, two years etc. (a percentage figure based on the age of the debts).

·  The Revenues and Benefits team would continue to issue reminders and try to reach agreements for payments by instalments and if payments were still being made, the debt would not be written off even if it was twenty years old.

·  With regard to the distribution of Business Rates and the treatment of Bad Debts, the Council was required to account for the way it collected Business Rates and a number of forms had to be completed over the course of the year:  NNDR1 at the beginning of the year showing the amount the Council expected to collect in Business Rates to the end of the year and NNDR3 showing the amount actually collected in cash terms.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 29