Agenda item

Sarah Didcote, Deputy Section 151 Officer (Statement of Accounts to follow)

The Deputy Section 151 Officer introduced the Statement of Accounts 2016-17 and proceeded to talk through a PowerPoint presentation (Appendix 1) and in addition to the slides, explained that:

• It was important to note that the legislation prescribes a set format by which the statements have to be presented.  
• The bad debt provision for the non-recovery of overpayment of housing benefit has increased from 70% to 75%, representing a change to the draft accounting policies approved by the committee at the June meeting.
• The practice and procedures had improved since last year, which had assisted in being able to achieve closedown a month earlier than last year.
• Instructions were actually given to the valuers in July/August rather than in November as stated on slide 5 of the presentation. 
• The turnout of staff at workshops held in March was greater than in previous years. 
• Much more detailed work was carried out in March, earlier than in previous years, which meant that closedown work could also be completed earlier. 
• The date for external audit of the accounts should have shown as July/August 2017 rather than 2016 on the presentation slide. 
• The fact that the Comprehensive Income and Expenditure Statement service analysis was now based on the Council structure meant that it could be presented in the same way that it had always been reported throughout the year to members. 
• The new Expenditure and Funding Analysis (EFA) note to the accounts was the main change this year. 
• The narrative statement was not hugely different to last year but further efforts had been made to ensure that it told the story of the council and highlight any success stories.  
• Members were reminded that the Annual Governance Statement had been agreed by the committee in June. 
• She highlighted that the Management Outturn had shown an underspend of £571k for the year. 
• The EFA allowed the reader to reconcile the management accounts reported to Council to the Comprehensive Income & Expenditure account and the Movement in Reserves Statement reported in the Statement of Accounts, showing year end technical adjustments such as pensions and revaluations. This is aimed at making the statements more useful and understandable. 
• It was noted that because the Balance Sheet was a snapshot of a point in time, it could change from one day to the next. 
• The £308m net assets at 31^st March 2017 include £62m of liabilities on pensions. 
• Usable and unusable reserves were included as many were then reversed back out and there were notes to support this.  (delete line)
• Because early closure had been achieved this year, there was every confidence that this could be replicated next year when the statutory deadline would officially change, subject to any initial changes as a result of the introduction of Group Accounts for Publica Ltd.  
• The June meeting of this committee would move to the end of July from 2018 onwards. 

The following responses were given to member questions: 

• The purchase order situation was monitored monthly and was greatly improved with between 80% and 90% of invoices received having an appropriate purchase order and admittedly, this had made the closedown process much smoother. 
• At least 20% of assets were valued each year as part of a 5 year rolling programme, as well as a paper exercise to look at the rest.  Changing market conditions were taken into account and could see certain assets prioritised over others, regardless of value. 
• The council held operational assets not only investment assets (i.e. bridges, etc) and whilst the value of that asset would depreciate annually, it would not always necessarily be something that could be easily sold to a member of the public. 
• No questions or issues were raised during the public consultation. 
• The Museum collection, which are assets of the council were included under heritage assets, though they have not been been formally valued in the last year.  The notes in relation to this recognised that it was not always possible to achieve a valuation on some of the items.  

The committee commended officers for their hard work and congratulated everyone involved for being able to achieve closedown a month earlier than last year and a year before the statutory change.

Upon a vote it was unanimously 

RESOLVED that: 

1. The accounts for the year ended 31 March 2017 be approved. 
2. The Statement of Accounts and letter of representation be signed by the Chairman of the committee and the Section 151 Officer.