Issue - meetings

Wales Audit Officers introduced the ISA260 report on the authorities audited accounts for 2018/19.  It was confirmed that it is proposed to award an unqualified audit opinion.

Reference was made to significant issues arising from the audit as follows:

·         Uncorrected misstatements: Those set out below have been discussed with management but remain uncorrected.   It was requested that these are corrected, if not, reasons for non-correction were requested.  Non-correction will not affect the unqualified audit opinion.

            i) Pension Liability understated by £1,941,000 following the McCloud ruling recorded as a contingent liability.

            ii) Non-consolidation of related business and operations

            iii) Expenditure overstated by £178,705 as prepayment journal not posted at year-end

·         Misstatements corrected by management were reported because they were over the trivial level.

·         Other significant issues arising from the audit included:

i) Some concerns were voiced about the qualitative aspects of accounting practices and financial reporting; specifically a significant number of rounding errors (in excess of 100). It was noted that management has decided not to adjust for these errors.  Additionally a number of high value casting errors were noted. 

            ii) Some areas for improvement included a ‘Schedule of Deliverables’ as not all appropriate working papers were available at the commencement of the audit.

The Wales Audit Officers were grateful for the close co-operation of the Finance Team during the audit process.

This and the following item were considered together.