This Draft Audit Plan summarises EY’s initial assessment of the key risks driving the development of an effective audit for the Council and outlines a planned audit strategy in response to those risks.

Maria Grindley and Adrian Balmer, EY, presented the draft Audit Plan for 2019/20 summarising the initial assessment of the key risks driving the development of an effective audit for the Council and outlining EY’s planned audit strategy in response to those risks.  EY reported that the audit was progressing well and expected it to conclude in April/May 2022.

The planning procedures were ongoing and the Committee would be updated, if there were any significant changes or revisions at its next meeting.  The Committee received an assessment of the audit risks and key areas of focus for the external auditors, which included:

• Potential misstatement in valuation of land, buildings and investment properties was assessed as significant for the financial year 2019/20 due to the significant judgements involved;
• Potential error in the accounting treatment of cash reconciling items in main bank account reconciliation - the bank reconciliations would be reviewed to assess any potential impact in 2019/20;
• Group accounts: potential error in consolidation process due to the change in accounting period of RTL and as a result of the related changes, there was a high likelihood that an error may occur on the consolidation process of RTL to the Group Accounts of the Council.

In relation to value for money, EY’s risk assessment had considered both the potential financial impact of the issues that had been identified and also the likelihood that the issue would be of interest to local taxpayers, the Government and other stakeholders. The review had identified a significant risk due to the issues covered in the recommendations during the previous two financial years, which required consideration to assess the progress to address these that had been made in 2019/20.

Resolved:     That the Provisional Audit Plan summarising the initial assessment of the key risks, be noted and further reports be presented to the Committee as necessary.