Issue - meetings

            The Board received a report of the Operational Director, Finance which provided the Audit Commission’s report following the audit of 2011/12 grant claims and returns. The report was presented by the new external auditors, Grant Thornton, on behalf of the Audit Commission.

            The Grant Claims and Returns Report summarised the findings from the reviews of the Council’s 2011/12 grant claims and returns completed by the Audit Commission.  A copy of the 2011/12 Grant Claims and Returns report was appended to the report for consideration.

            Mike Thomas and Colette Williams from Grant Thornton advised Members that the external audit team certified four grant claim returns with a total value of £123.6m, which was detailed in a full summary in the report.  A full review was carried out on one claim and a limited review was carried out on two claims.  Details of the difference between full and limited reviews was appended to the report together with a brief explanation of the certification regime.

            The external audit team reported the following:

·         they were able to fully certify all four of the Council’s claims and returns;

·         they identified no issues relating to the control environment for claims and returns which required reporting to grant paying departments;

·         there were no recommendations arising from the certification work; and

·         there was no outstanding audit work on 2011/12 claims and returns to transfer to the Council’s new audit supplier, Grant Thornton.

Members were advised of two very minor amendments, details of which were set out in the report for information and did not affect the grant entitlement overall.

The Board wished to place on record its thanks to the Finance Management and Revenues and Benefits Section for the hard work carried out over the year.

RESOLVED: That the Audit Commission’s report set out in Appendix 1 be approved.