Agenda and minutes

Venue: Virtually via Microsoft Teams - if you would like to attend this meeting live via Microsoft Teams please contact committee.services@blaenau-gwent.gov.uk

Contact: Democratic Services  7788

Media

Items
No. Item

1.

Simultaneous Translation

You are welcome to use Welsh at the meeting, a minimum notice period of 3 working days is required should you wish to do so.  A simultaneous translation service will be provided if requested.

Minutes:

It was noted that no requests had been received for the simultaneous translation service.

 

2.

Chair

Minutes:

It was reported that the Chair, Mr. T. Edwards was experiencing technical difficulties, and it was agreed that the Vice-Chair, Councillor S. Healy would Chair the meeting.

 

3.

Apologies

To receive.

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors H. Trollope.

 

4.

Declarations of Interest and Dispensations

To receive.

Minutes:

The following declarations of interest were reported:

 

Councillor B. Summers - Item No. 7 Statement of Accounts 2019/20 (Silent Valley Waste Services)

 

Councillor J. Hill - Item No. 7 Statement of Accounts 2019/20 (Silent Valley Waste Services)

 

5.

Audit Committee pdf icon PDF 473 KB

To receive the minutes of the Audit Committee held on 2nd February, 2021.

 

(Please note the minutes are submitted for accuracy points only)

Minutes:

The minutes of the special Audit Committee held on 2nd February, 2021 were submitted, whereupon:

 

A Member reported that the figure listed on page 3 of the minutes under Item No. Action Sheet, should be amended to read £8,200.

 

 

RESOLVED, subject to the foregoing, that the minutes be accepted as a true record of proceedings.

 

6.

Action Sheet - 2nd February, 2021

There were no actions arising from the meeting of the Audit Committee held on 2nd February, 2021.

Minutes:

There were no actions arising from the meeting held on 2nd February, 2021.

 

7.

Audit Plan Progress Report – January to February 2021 pdf icon PDF 497 KB

To consider the report of the Chief Officer Resources.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Consideration was given to report of the Professional Lead Internal Audit.

 

The Professional Lead Internal Audit presented the report which provided an update on progress against the Internal Audit Plan for the period 1st January 2021 to 28th February, 2021.  Activities during the period were set out in Appendix A to the report, and the format showed a summary of findings from audit reports produced in the period, including a formal audit opinion where appropriate. Where individual audits were graded as Limited Assurance or No Assurance, an Internal Audit Summary Report was presented at Appendix B.

 

A Member asked whether the Audit Section were on target to complete the levels of audit coverage sufficient to form an opinion at the end of the year.

 

The Officer explained that the progress report presented at the last meeting was based on work over a 9 month period, and the Section was currently on track to complete all financial audits for the end of March 2021.

 

In response to a further question raised the Officer reported that the Flying Start and SIMS School audits had been delayed due to services being reprioritised, but it was intended to progress those now and hopefully they would be completed towards the end of the year.  In relation to the Thematic Review, the Officer said this was a pilot audit looking at numerous systems across a range of areas.  As this was a new area of work there was no definitive timescale to complete the audit as it was about exploring whether it would add value and prevent duplication of work.  The results of the pilot would be reported to a future meeting of the Audit Committee.

 

The Member then referred to Appendix B Community Care Audit and sought clarification on the summary of findings.

 

The Officer confirmed that Community Care Management and internal controls operated effectively.  The majority of the findings highlighted weaknesses in relation to quality assurance processes, however, these had now been redesigned as a result of the audit.

 

RESOLVED that the report be accepted and the findings within the attached Appendices, and progress on activities for the period 1st January, 2021 to 28th February, 2021 be noted.

 

8.

Statement of Accounts 2019/2020 pdf icon PDF 759 KB

To consider the report of the Chief Officer Resources.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Consideration was given to the report of the Senior Business Partner Capital & Corporate Accounting.

 

It was agreed that Item Nos. 7 and 8 be considered simultaneously.

 

The Senior Business Partner presented the Council’s Statement of Accounts for 2019/20.  He reported that during the initial stages of the Covid 19 pandemic critical services were prioritised with staff being redeployed into those critical services to support the Council’s response. As a result, the completion of the Statement of Accounts was delayed with Welsh Government recommending that LA’s prepare their draft accounts by 31st August, 2020 and publication of

final audited accounts by 30th November, 2020.

 

The Council’s draft Statement of Accounts were reported to Audit Committee on 29th September and since that time, a number of adjustments have been identified and are reported to Audit Committee.

 

As required under Section 11 of the 2014 Regulations and Section 29 of the 2004 Act, the Accounts and other documents were made available for public inspection for 20 working days, from Monday 5th October until Friday, 30th October, 2020 inclusive and no requests for information or inspection were received during that period.

 

The Officer confirmed that Audit Wales had now finalised the detailed financial audit of the Accounts and prepared its statutory Audit of Accounts Report (International Standards on Auditing or ISA 260 report), Item no. 8 on the agenda.

 

The Authority anticipated receiving an unqualified signed audit opinion from the Appointed Auditor. At this stage, Audit Wales are unable to issue a certificate of completion of audit for 2019/2020, pending the certification of audits in respect of prior financial years.

 

He concluded that if agreed by the Audit Committee, the Statement of Accounts would be signed-off by the Chief Officer Resources and the Chair of the Audit Committee.

 

The Audit Wales Officer then presented the Audit Wales Blaenau Gwent CBC 2019-20 Audit of Accounts report.

 

He said overall this was a positive report and confirmed that Audit Wales intended to issue an unqualified audit opinion on this year’s Accounts.  He then went briefly through the report and highlighted points contained therein. 

 

He said Auditors could never provide complete assurance that accounts are correctly stated, and instead worked to a level of ‘materiality’, which was set to try to identify and correct misstatements that might otherwise cause a user of the accounts to be misled, and the level of materiality was £2.66m for this year’s audit.  However, there were some areas of the Accounts that may be of more importance to the reader, and in this regard a lower materiality level had been set for these, i.e. Senior Officer pay £1,000 and Related Parties £100,000.

The Audit Wales Officer said the Covid pandemic had had a significant impact on all aspects of society and continued to do so, and this resulted in the draft accounts being completed for audit by 23rd September, 2020, some three months after the original timetable.  However, he pointed out that Audit Wales were grateful to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

9.

Audit Wales - Blaenau Gwent CBC 2019-20 Audit of Accounts report pdf icon PDF 237 KB

To consider the Audit Wales report.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Consideration was given to the report submitted by Audit Wales.

 

RESOLVED that the report be accepted.