Agenda and minutes

To receive any declaration of interest by any Member or Officer in respect of any item of business.

No declaration of interest was received.

To present the minutes of the previous meeting of the Governance and Audit Committee held on 8 December, 2022.

The minutes of the previous meeting of the Governance and Audit Committee held on 8 December, 2022 were presented and were confirmed as correct.

To present the following –

·                    The report of the Director of Function (Resources)/Section 151 Officer – Statement of the Accounts 2021/22

·                    The report of the Head of Profession (HR) and Transformation – Annual Governance Statement 2021/22

·                    The report of External Audit on the audit of the 2021/22 financial statements (ISA 260 report)

·         The report of the Director of Function (Resources)/Section 151 Officer incorporating the Final Statement of the Accounts for 2021/22 following audit was presented for the Committee’s consideration.

The Director of Function (Resources)/Section 151 Officer reported that the statutory deadline for the completion of the audited accounts for the 2021/22 financial year was again extended to 30 November, 2021 to accommodate the working conditions in relation to the Coronavirus pandemic. This was extended further to 31 January, 2023 due to two significant technical issues which affected all Welsh and English councils, the first being to allow additional valuations of each of the Council’s assets which have not been revalued as at 31 March, 2022 and might have materially changed in value, and the second was in relation to the valuation and accounting treatment of infrastructure assets such as highways, street furniture, street lighting and pathways. He welcomed the External Auditors’ conclusion that the accounts had been prepared in accordance with the CIPFA Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting 2021/22; that there were no  misstatements that remain uncorrected and that it was the Auditors’ intention to issue an unqualified opinion on the 2021/22 accounts.  The audit testing did however identify some changes needed and some errors which the External Auditors recommended were amended to ensure the accounts are materially correct. A summary of the corrections made is set out in Appendix 3 of the Auditors’ ISA 260 report; in addition some other minor changes have been made since the draft statement was presented to the Committee in July, 2022 including the removal of some of the explanatory notes that were not deemed to add value to the accounts in line with a previous recommendation made by the auditors about streamlining the contents. Other changes and matters to note include the following -

·           With regard to the Comprehensive Income and Expenditure Statement following the auditors’ recommendation that the Penhesgyn Landfill Site provision be reduced by £228k in line with the consultant’s report which evaluated the site and recommended a provision of £4.411m rather than £4.639m, and also as a result of the revaluation of assets. The reduced provision for the Penhesgyn Landfill site also increases the Council fund revenue outturn for 2021/22 to £5.026m and increases the Council Fund general reserve to £12.278m. This is not reported by the auditors in the ISA 260 report as it is not a significant value.

·           With regard to the Balance Sheet as a result of the  revaluation of  the Council’s assets which were at risk of being materially undervalued due to significant cost increases and increases in the market value of properties  not revalued as at 31 March 2022. The updated valuations have resulted in an increase of £24.6m in the value of the Council’s assets from the draft statement to the final accounts.

·           The changes to the figures in the CIES and the Balance Sheet noted above also impacted on other statements and notes in the accounts including the Cash flow Statement but by  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.