Issue - meetings

The Committee received one item of urgent business, the Annual Audit Letter, presented by Leigh Lloyd-Thomas from BDO. The Committee noted the contents of the report and the progress to date. Mr Lloyd-Thomas advised that the letter was a summarised version of the overall findings of the audit of the Council’s Statement of Account 2016/17, which had been presented in detail at the previous meeting of the Committee. It was advised that the previous report had been a far more technical document, which had raised issues around financial reporting issues.

It was noted that all of these technical issues had now been resolved and the auditors were therefore in a position to state their opinion that the Statement of Accounts was a true and fair reflection of the Council’s position. The Committee were also advised that this report had been published at the end of October 2017 in order to meet the deadline set by the NAO and was now live and available on Haringey’s website.

Following a question from the Committee in relation to the valuation discrepancy that was raised at the last meeting it was noted that BDO had subsequently met with the valuers and there was a difference between the data set of assets held by the valuer and the data set held by Haringey’s Finance department. The Committee was assured that this had been rectified and that better quality controls would be implemented going forwards. It was noted that the valutions of the assets to be used in the HDV project had undergone intense additional scrutiny.

The Committee raised its concern over the reported £16.1m overspend for 2016/17 and asked Mr Leigh-Thomas for his recommendation’s in regards to this. It was advised that although it was not necessary to immediately fill this shortfall, if radical savings were not made in the next 4 years then BDO would become uneasy in relation to the financial sustainability part of their audit conclusions.

The Committee also asked Mr Lloyd-Leigh for his professional opinion regarding the sale of assets and it was noted that he recommended it would always be best practice to sell on the open market to achieve the most competitive bids and best value for disposal.

The Chair noted that this was the last Committee meeting of Anne Woods, Head of Audit & Risk Management. The Committee expressed its thanks for all of her work in support of the Committee and wished her the very best of luck in the future.