Agenda item

·        To present the Joint-Committee’s final accounts and Annual Governance Statement for 2012/13.

·        To present the External Auditor’s report on the audit of the Financial Statements 2012/13.

1.1  The Joint Committee’s post-audit Final Accounts for 2012/13 were presented together with the Annual Governance Statement.

The Senior Finance Manager of Gwynedd Council reminded the Members of the discussions at the previous meeting on 5^th July regarding the additional reporting requirements for accounting and auditing the accounts of Joint Committees, namely that the Accounts and Audit (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2010 require all Joint Committee to prepare annual accounts i.e. an income and expenditure account, and where the turnover exceeds £1m, a statement of accounts must be prepared in accordance with the CIPFA code for the Joint Committee.  The Officer stated that he had noted in the previous meeting that the accounts submitted at that time were subject to a separate audit by the Wales Audit Office.  That audit has now taken place and the minor amendments since the pre-audit version have been outlined in the WAO ISA260 report by the Wales Audit Office.  The Appointed  Auditor intends to publish an unqualified audit report on the financial statements once the Letter of Representation is completed based on that which is outlined in Appendix 1 of the Auditor’s Report, namely the response of Gwynedd Council as the organisation with financial oversight of the Joint Committee’s activities.

1.2  A report by the Wales Audit Office was submitted for the Joint Committee’s consideration on the audit of the Special Educational Needs Joint Committee’s Financial Statements.

Amanda Hughes of the Wales Audit Office confirmed that the Appointed Auditor’s opinion on the Joint Committee accounting statements is that they give true and fair view of the financial position of the Special Educational Needs Joint Committee on 31 March 2013 and its income and expenditure for the year then ended and that they have been prepared appropriately in accordance with the Code of Practice for Local Authority Accounting in the United Kingdom for 2012/13.  However, Members’ attention was drawn to the fact that prior to the 2012-13 financial year, the Joint Committee as a local government body for the purposes of Section 12 of the Public Audit Act (Wales) 2004 had not complied with the requirement in Section 13 of that Act to maintain accounts that are subject to annual audit, and that it had failed to produce financial statements in accordance with statutory requirements.  She declared that it is unlikely that this would have had a material effect on the accounts of both constituent authorities (Anglesey and Gwynedd) and that it is mainly an accounting issue and not a matter relating to the payment of the respective contributions of the constituent authorities for the Joint Committee.  However, although the Appointed Auditor proposes to publish an unqualified report on the financial statements, this is noted as another matter to report upon in the Appointed Auditor’s report.

The Senior Finance Manager of Gwynedd Council explained that although independent accounts had not been prepared for the Joint Committee in previous years, the financial activities of the Joint Committee had been reported as part of Gwynedd Council’s accounts as the lead body on the Joint Committee’s financial affairs.

It was resolved to approve the -

·         ISA 260 Report from the Appointed Auditor on the Financial Statements together with the

·         Statement of post-audit Accounts for 2012/13.