Agenda item

The Committee considered a report of the Corporate Director, Resources which presented the Statement of Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2013 and raised any significant issues arising from the accounts (for copy see file of Minutes).

The Corporate Director, Resources said that this was the first stage of the final accounts process and the signed statement had been provided to external audit within the statutory deadline of 30 June 2013.  The second stage would need to be complete by 30 September 2013 and would take into account the views of the external Auditor.

The Risk, Insurance and Governance Manager updated the Committee on the amendments made to the Annual Governance Statement following comments made at the last Audit Committee.  The amended version had been reported to full council for information.

Councillor Temple congratulated the Corporate Director and his team for an easier to read set of accounts.  He asked about the large variance in the original budget and the service groupings revenue outturn figure for supplies and services ( Page 91 of pack)  and was informed that this information would be fed back to Committee.

Councillor Temple also questioned the Council Tax figure for 2013-14 as the forecast collection was  a lot less than last year.( Page 113 of pack) . The Corporate Director Resources  informed the Committee that there had been a significant reduction change in Council Tax benefit that impacts on the tax base and that the new homes bonus impact does not take effect until  2015/16.

Councillor Temple proposed that the sentence in the Annual Governance Statement (page 253 of pack, “given the extent of change across the council and the overall reduction in resources during the year, the sustainment of this assurance opinion should be regarded as a positive outcome”, be removed.  This comment was a quote from the Annual Internal Audit Report relating to the, “Moderate”, opinion provided on the control environment by the head of internal audit.

The Committee voted not to amend the Annual Governance Statement.

Councillor Forster sought confirmation on the regularity of bank reconciliations as this had been previously raised as an area of concern. The Committee was advised that bank reconciliations are now being carried out on a monthly basis.

Mr Hoban enquired about the information in the accounts relating to supervision and management expenditure on functions relating to the HRA (Page 203 – paragraph 8).and figures had been quoted relating to the East Durham Homes and Dale and Valley Homes and not Durham City Homes. Whilst it was acknowledged there were different accounting arrangements in place for Durham City Homes as the internal provider, it was agreed that comparative figures for Durham City homes would be provided to the Committee..

Mr Hoban commented that the accounts were much clearer and easier to read this year and thanked the team involved in preparing them.

The Chairman also congratulated the team on the hard work carried out in preparing the accounts.

Resolved:

(i)         That the attached Statement of Accounts for the County Council for the financial year ended 31 March 2013 be approved.

(ii)        That the progress on the rationalisation of bank accounts and the current position on bank reconciliations be noted.

(iii)       That the update on the Auditor’s recommendations in the Annual Governance Report and the amendments made be noted.