Issue - meetings

At its meeting on 15 December 2021 the Audit and Governance Committee considered the appointment of external auditors and RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL that the Public Sector Audit Appointments (PSAA) invitation to ‘opt-in’ to the sector led national scheme for the appointment of external auditors for the five financial years commencing 1 April 2023 be accepted.

58.1          At its meeting on 15 December 2021 the Audit and Governance Committee had considered the appointment of external auditors and recommended to Council that the Public Sector Audit Appointments (PSAA) invitation to ‘opt-in’ to the sector led national scheme for the appointment of external auditors for the five financial years commencing 1 April 2023 be accepted.

58.2          The report which was considered by the Audit and Governance Committee had been circulated with the Agenda for the current meeting at Pages No. 60-66.

58.3          The Chair of the Audit and Governance Committee proposed the recommendation and the Vice-Chair seconded it.

58.4          Accordingly, it was

                 RESOLVED           That the Public Sector Audit Appointments (PSAA) invitation to                                    ‘opt-in’ to the sector led national scheme for the appointment of                               external auditors for the five financial years commencing 1 April                                  2023 be accepted.

To recommend to Council that the Public Sector Audit Appointments (PSAA) invitation to ‘opt-in’ to the sector led national scheme for the appointment of external auditors for the five financial years commencing 1 April 2023 be accepted.

34.1          The report of the Head of Finance and Asset Management, circulated at Pages No. 38-44, set out the proposals for appointing the external auditors to the Council for the 2023/24 accounts and beyond.  Members were asked to recommend to Council that the Public Sector Audit Appointments (PSAA) invitation to ‘opt-in’ to the sector-led national scheme for the appointment of external auditors for the five financial years commencing 1 April 2023 be accepted.

34.2          The Head of Finance and Asset Management advised that it was five years since Members had considered the appointment of an external auditor and there were three options available to the Council under the current framework: to appoint its own auditor; to act jointly with other authorities to procure an auditor; or to opt-in to the national auditor appointment scheme administered by a body designated by the Secretary of State as the ‘appointing person’ which was currently designated to PSAA.  He explained that the obvious benefits of opting into a national scheme were the efficiencies in terms of the time and cost associated with making the appointment and, following the appointment, the ability to communicate effectively with the auditor in terms of the overall contract.  This option had been strongly recommended when it had last been considered and subsequently approved by Council with Grant Thornton appointed as the auditor for Tewkesbury Borough Council.  As such, it was recommended that the same route be followed in 2022 to ensure a successful appointment was made going forward for a five year period, as set out in the report.

34.3          A Member noted that the audit fee had increased to £20,100 and she asked for a summary of the extra work that was carried out by the external auditors.  The Head of Finance and Asset Management explained that the depth and breadth of audit work which Grant Thornton and other bodies undertook had increased significantly over the last few years, for example, pension funds and valuations of property/estate, which was very different from when the scale fee had been agreed.  The movement in fees over the last 10 years had been quite dramatic – the fee paid to the Audit Commission, as the Council’s previous auditors, was in the region of £140,000 a year which was significantly more than the current scale fee of £35,000.  This clearly impacted on the audit sector hence the recommendation for greater funding in order to deliver the audit work required and give the public assurance on local authority accounts.  The representative from Grant Thornton advised that Tewkesbury Borough Council’s audit had previously taken around three to four weeks but this year had taken eight to nine weeks; the onus on the external auditors had increased which required additional work in terms of added scrutiny and challenge to interrogate the figures.  Having gone down in recent years, it was likely the trend would now be that fees would increase again.  The Head of Finance and Asset Management noted that the Audit and Governance Committee  ...  view the full minutes text for item 34