Agenda item

This paper provides the West of England Audit Committee with an overview of Grant Thornton’s findings to date on the financial sustainability objective as prescribed by the National Audit Office (NAO) Code of Audit Practice.

The Committee received a paper providing an overview of Grant Thornton’s findings to date on the financial sustainability objective as prescribed by the National Audit Office (NAO) Code of Audit Practice.  The Committee were requested tp note the report.  Jon Roberts from the Authority’s External Auditors Grant Thornton was present to answer questions from Members.

The Chair of the Committee, Councillor Geoff Gollop, reiterated his frustration with the delay in the Committee receiving the report and the fact that the report was still incomplete.  He asked that the following statement be included in the minutes of the meeting:

“I wish to draw to the Committees attention my concerns about the VFM report. I should add that I have no concern about the information presented, only about what is missing.

I have expressed at our past meetings and briefings my concerns about governance, decision making, frictions within WECA and wider management issues. Most of these concerns are shared by audit committee and have also been raised by the WECA scrutiny committee.

I believed that the VFM report was going to address these issues and one specific decision that I was concerned about and have pressed for that report to be made available to audit committee on a number of occasions. However, meetings have been rearranged and/ or cancelled and we are still no further forward.After our April meeting, I was told that the report was expected soon but would have recommendations that should go straight to the WECA Committee. I asked that it should come to audit as a matter of urgency and I asked to be kept informed.

I was surprised to discover from the GT report that officers have had the report for almost 4 months before this meeting ( 20^th June 2022 per Page 4 of the report page 16 of our pack) , but neither I nor the audit committee have seen the draft as presented then, or copies amended to show officer response.  I believe audit committee needs an explanation of why it still has not seen this report and to understand the delay. We should also be able to track changes made to the report.

Of equal concern to me, and I hope to members of the audit committee, is the agenda and agenda planning. Because I was concerned about this issue, I asked for a meeting to discuss the agenda before it was published. This is important in the context of the VFM report. I had believed from our previous discussion that it was coming in full to this meeting, but only knew that it was not after the meeting papers were published.

It should be entirely appropriate for the chair to be included in discussing the potential content of the agenda. I very much believe audit committee should be a working together of members and officers for the good of the organisation.

Returning to the VFM report, I believe this committee needs to know why the report has been delayed and when it will be published. If the report has significant implications, we need to know why it has taken so long and how improvements have been made and lessons learned. If there are no significant findings it is difficult to understand how there can be any justification for the delay”.

Jon Roberts, Grant Thornton stated in respons that the report had been embargoed until such time that the Auditors had given permission for the report to be released.  There had also been a number of sensitive issues that the auditors had been dealing with that had resulted in delays, including a consultation process across the summer period involving senior managers across the Authority who had been given an opportunity to respond.  He believed that the final Value for Money report would be ready in time for the Committee’s consideration at its meeting in November 2022.

The following comments were raised:

·       Members requested that the report be published in such a way to allow a text search and that a glossary be included.  Jon Roberts stated that he would ask that the final report in November 2002 be made more accessible;

·       Grant Thornton was keen to hear views regarding any specific project management reviews to be undertaken.

Resolved:

            That the report be noted.