Issue - meetings

Consideration was given to report of the Chief Officer Resources.

The Chief Officer Resources presented the report, and pointed out that Items 6, 7, 8 & 9 on the agenda related to the Council’s accounts for 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19.   Item No. 6 reported the Council’s statement of accounts covering all three years, with Items 7, 8 & 9 being Audit Wales reports, which included their opinion for each set of accounts.  The Chief Officer Resources suggested that Item Nos. 6, 7, 8 & 9 on the agenda be considered together.

She said Members would recall during September 2017 Audit Wales received correspondence raising concerns regarding the Council’s relationship with Silent Valley Waste Services.  An Audit Wales investigation has been ongoing and as a result the Auditor General has been unable to provide opinion on the Council’s accounts for the three years referred to.  Whilst Audit Wales continue to examine a number of matters relating to the Council’s historic relationship with Silent Valley, which they intend to report on in due course, they do not now consider any of the ongoing matters to be material to the Audit General’s opinion on the Council’s Financial Statements.  An audit opinion has therefore been provided, and the Statement of Accounts for the three years (2016/17, 2017/18 & 2018/19) have been presented to Committee for approval. 

The Chief Officer Resources reported that for 2016/17 and 2017/18 the Auditor General considered the pension contributions paid on behalf of the Chief Finance Officer and the Corporate Director for Environment & Regeneration for their roles as Directors on Silent Valley Waste Services appeared to be contrary to law, and considered that the Council should have disclosed the nature and impact of the additional pension contributions but failed to do so.  Further detail on this opinion was provided in the Audit Wales reports at Items 7 and 8, and explained that whilst the value of the transactions identified in the Accounts were relatively small, the assessment of materiality could also be affected by certain quality issues, such as legal and regulatory requirements as well as political sensitivity.  This was the case with Senior Officers’ Remuneration Note considered to be material to its nature rather than value, and as result materiality level of £1 has been applied.  Given this low level of materiality, Audit Wales expect this level of disclosure to be correct since it was publishing individuals’ remuneration and making this information publicly available.  As result of this, it was the Auditor General’s intention to issue a modified or qualified opinion on the Council’s financial statements for 2016/17 and 2017/18, and the 2018/19 opinion as unqualified.

The Chief Officer Resources said the Council had sought independent legal advice on this matter, and whilst it was accepted that there were procedural errors in the way in which employer pension contributions were administered, it was considered that these did not have the effect of rendering the payments contrary to law.

In addition to the above issue, the Audit Wales’ reports also highlighted the corrected and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6