Agenda item

To consider the committee’s forward work programme (copy attached).

The Chair, David Stewart, informed the Committee the need to recalibrate the Forward Work Programme and to synchronise with the work of other departments.

 

It was stressed to the Committee the importance of an approved Forward Work Programme which also stated which reports were substantive and which would be for information.

 

The Chief Internal Auditor agreed to have a meeting with Liz Thomas, Gary Williams and Democratic Services to scrutinise the Forward Work Programme and confirm future items.

 

It was also agreed that in the future, a pre-meeting to discuss the Forward Work Programme would take place prior to the Agenda pack being published to ensure all relevant reports were correctly added.   A suggested time frame of 2-3 weeks prior to each Governance and Audit Committee was agreed. 

 

The Chair reiterated the point that both he and the Vice-Chair, Councillor Mark Young, needed to be informed of any changes to the Forward Work Programme to ensure they were both updated prior to the Agenda pack being published.

 

The Head of Finance and Audit, Liz Thomas confirmed an update had been presented at the last meeting concerning the difficulty in completing the audit of the statement of accounts 2022/23.  It had been a discrete issue to do with the way historical cost assets  had been valued.  The impact was in two unusable reserves and any movement would be between those two unusable reserves. 

 

It was of a material value and, therefore, could not move forward until the issue could be brought below the materiality threshold.  Although they did not have a direct impact the numbers between the two on the balance sheets needed to be more accurate.  It was taking time to work through and progress was slow as the work was very involved and complicated.  A sample had been selected, which Audit were working through and some queries had been sent to the Finance Department and they were working through those queries. 

 

It was confirmed that the Finance Department were in regular dialogue with Audit Wales concerning the issue and the suggested approach to move forward was to clear the queries.  Another issue had arisen around the historical costs and the impact of that was currently being looked into, but needed to move forward with the Audit of the 2023/24 accounts as assurance was required that the rest of what had been done in the 2023/24 accounts had been produced and then audited. 

 

There was a vacancy in the Finance team due to a member of staff moving over to a Local Authority in England following a promotion.  Unfortunately, had been unable to recruit to date which was also an issue. 

 

The accounts were on the Forward Work Programme for January 2025 but there was a doubt the information would be available. 

 

Audit Wales reiterated what had been stated by the Head of Finance and Mike Whiteley acknowledged the hard work Liz Thomas and her team had been doing.   From the Audit Wales perspective, as soon as the 2023/24 accounts were complete Audit Wales had a team ready to work on them to enable all the 2023/24 audit to be complete apart from the residual asset queries. 

 

The Chair queried the reputation of the Authority as did not want the Council to be criticised for the delay in the accounts.   Also, as Liz Thomas had eluded to, was the pressure on the finance function. 

 

It was suggested that the Accounts, rather than be on the Forward Work Programme each month and being rolled over, to be added to the “Future Items” section of the Forward Work Programme.   Liz Thomas and Mike Whiteley confirmed they would discuss this and let the Committee know which suited them best.

 

It was queried what support the Governance and Audit Committee could offer through the HR process to deal with the capacity issue within the Finance Department.   It was confirmed that as a team they had been reviewing what additional capacity could be brought in to move the issue forward as aware would need to produce the 2024/25 accounts from the new finance system. 

 

On the Forward Work Programme January 2025 Denbighshire County Council Local Code of Governance was confirmed.

 

At this juncture, the Head of Corporate Support Service – Performance, Digital and Assets confirmed some Audit Wales items to be added to the Forward Work Programme as follows –

(a)  Commissioning Thematic Review

(b)  National Report Cracks and Foundations

(c)  Sustainable Development making the best of brown field land and empty buildings

 

These three items were likely to be “For information” items but that would be confirmed.

 

Future Items on the Forward Work Programme still showed changes to the Committee terms of reference.  This is historic and has been completed so can be removed.

 

Future Training Dates – Risk Management, this had taken place and could now be removed.  

 

RESOLVED that the Governance and Audit Committee confirm the Forward Work Programme agreed in September 2024 be utilised as the basis of the Forward Work Programme going forward and a series of Agenda management meetings be diarised to ensure that the Chair and Vice-Chair are involved in the setting of individual Agendas.