Agenda item

1.10 p.m.

Report by the Director of Finance.

The Accounts and Audit (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 require the Director of Finance to publish the unaudited Statement of Accounts 2019/20 no later than 31 August 2020 and certify that they give a true and fair view of the County Council’s financial position and income and expenditure for the year. This was achieved on 8 June 2020 and the unaudited accounts were published on the Council’s website. The amended Regulations require the Statement of Accounts to be considered by a committee of the Council by 30 November 2020 and, following that consideration, to be approved by resolution of that committee. This report presents the accounts to the Audit & Governance Committee for consideration and approval, with the findings of the audit available in Ernst & Young LLP’s audit results reports. 

The Audit and Governance Committee is RECOMMENDED to

(a)          Consider and approve the Statement of Accounts 2019/20 at Annex 1;

(b)          Consider and approve the Letter of Representations 2019/20 for the Oxfordshire County Council accounts at Annex 3;

(c)          Consider and approve the Letter of Representations 2019/20 for the Oxfordshire Pension Fund accounts at Annex 4;

(d)          Agree that the Director of Finance, in consultation with the Chairman of the Committee (or Deputy Chairman in his absence), can make any further changes to the Statement of Accounts 2019/20 and letters of representation that may arise during completion of the audit.

Hannah Doney introduced the report to the Committee and highlighted that further changes to the accounts are likely as part of ongoing discussions with the Auditors.  This year, due to COVID-19, the Auditors have a greater focus on the going concern evaluation which requires them to look forward 12 months to check that the organisation has sufficient resources.  The accounts have been completed on an ongoing concern basis, we will be working with the Auditors through this and we will be adding additional text to Note 1 of the accounts to be explicit as to why we are a going concern.  The additional information will include:

·         Actions being taken i.e. review of the budget to identifying potential savings to meet the funding gap identified for 2020/21.

·         Additional information about the level of our reserves.

E&Y will take a consistent approach across all local government audits and will be evaluating their going concern opinion alongside other council audits.

Recommendation d) has been included to reflect the likelihood of changes to the Letters of Representation and Statement of Accounts because of ongoing audit work.  Therefore, the Committee is asked to agree that the Director of Finance, in consultation with the Chairman of the Committee, can make any further changes to the Letters of Representation and Statement of Accounts that may arise during completion of the audit.

Lorna Baxter and Hannah Doney responded to points raised by members of the Committee as follows:

• The accounts will be signed off at the end of August / beginning of September, and this confirmation can be emailed for the Committee’s attention.
• The Committee should request information regarding the auditor’s comparative works across Councils directly from E&Y, however the expenditure related to covid-19 information will be reflected in the 2020/21 accounts.
• The earmarked reserves are for revenue and are broken down in Note 44.  The grants and contributions reserve included grant funding received form government in March 2020 for use in 2020/21 which will be utilised against additional COVID expenditure.  Other earmarked reserves could also be used if necessary.
• The position reflected in the accounts are at a point in time, and the council is working towards a position of revised budget, which will demonstrate a suitable position at the end of the year.
• The contingency budget for the current year (2020/21) is £4m and is changed annually in line with risks across the organisation.  From the previous year (2019/20) we did not use all of our contingency budget.  There was a planned contribution from balances of £6m.  The underspend reduced the contribution to £3.8m.  This is the movement on general balances set out in the accounts.   

RESOLVED to:

(a)  Consider and approve the Statement of Accounts 2019/20 at Annex 1;

(b)  Consider and approve the Letter of Representations 2019/20 for the Oxfordshire County Council accounts at Annex 3;

(c)  Consider and approve the Letter of Representations 2019/20 for the Oxfordshire Pension Fund accounts at Annex 4;

(d)  Agree that the Director of Finance, in consultation with the Chairman of the Committee (or Deputy Chairman in his absence), can make any further changes to the Statement of Accounts 2019/20 and letters of representation that may arise during completion of the audit.