The Committee received a verbal update from Keith Mungadzi, (Audit Manager at Grant Thornton) to update on Grant Thornton’s external audit progress for the year 2023-24. The representative reported that they had received the Council’s draft accounts which were in the initial stages of being audited. It was confirmed that members of the Audit Committee will be updated on this audit process as the year progresses.
The representative also indicated that Grant Thronton were liaising with officers to arrange a member training session before the next Audit Committee meeting, scheduled 26 September 2024. The intention was to cover Audit training on reviewing the audit process and the financial statements.
The Committee queried Grant Thorntons position on the backlog of audited accounts of local bodies. The representative informed that they awaited statutory legislation from the new government on a proposed long-term solution to address the backlog. Terry Collier, Deputy Chief Executive also reiterated that as a result of the General Election, initially anticipated timescales for the implementation of statutory legislation will be delayed. It was however noted that BDO (the previous Auditors) were in the early stages of undertaking value for money work to cover the period 2018/19 to 2022/23.
The Committee sought clarification on our provision to pay for outstanding audits. The Deputy Chief Executive confirmed that under the guidance of the previous government, councils were only expected to be charged for audit work which had been undertaken, and therefore fees would be adjusted to reflect the work actually done.
The Committee resolved to note the verbal update.