Warwick district councillors call for public explanation over audit failings

The district’s audit and standards committee – a cross-party panel of councillors that oversees the authority’s work in these areas – was told this week that the council’s numbers for 2021-22 and 2022-23 would not go through the full audit process due to new national government deadlines.

Auditing of local government accounts has been a problem across the country for the past few years, causing a knock-on effect – each time one set of accounts gets delayed, some aspects relating to the next set get put on ice.

The government says just one per cent of local authorities filed audited accounts on time last year and has set a backstop date of December 13 for all work to be completed on any accounts up to the end of the financial year 2022-23 in order to try to clear the backlog.

The main problem for Warwick District Council is the accessibility of detailed enough information on property, plant and equipment (PPE) and assets for auditors Grant Thornton to make accurate appraisals by the deadline.

Representatives from Grant Thornton said the issues were “too significant for us to get there in time”, adding: “I think we have all agreed that we are going to finish the 21-22 audit excluding those elements of the accounts but we won’t have time to do the 22-23 audit with the backstop dates as they stand.”

Councillor Judy Falp (Whitnash Residents, Whitnash) was first to pick up the baton.

“I can understand why we have excluded it but when is it going to be done? It cannot just be ignored, it has to be looked at,” she said.

“If we are not doing it now, when will it be implemented?”

Grant Thornton's representative said: “We are not going to complete the audit work on it for the two financial statement years but that doesn’t mean that the (council’s) financial team is not doing anything.

“What we have agreed is that with those aspects of the accounts, given the timelines with the backstop, it would be a much better use of time for the finance officers to switch their attention to that 23-24 set of accounts to make sure those numbers are as accurate as they possibly can be.”

Steven Leathley, Warwick District Council’s strategic finance manager, committed to fully audited and up-to-date accounts for 2023-24.

“We have worked very hard with the supplier of our financial system over the past year to get the asset module into a much better place so it is more auditable and the records are as required by ourselves as an organisation and for audit,” he said.

Councillor Kyn Aizlewood (Green, Kenilworth Abbey & Arden) was not impressed.

“I don’t understand how this position can be acceptable to any organisation so I don’t know why it should be acceptable here,” he said, garnering support from Conservative group leader Councillor Andrew Day (Bishop’s Tachbrook).

“I think the residents deserve an explanation in plain English," said Cllr Day.

"We should be putting out a press release that explains the position with regard to our accounts. This is public money, it is their money and they deserve an explanation as to what is going on here, otherwise it undermines the confidence that has been built up in this council and its financial probity, which I am sure no one in this room would wish.

“We need to explain why we are where we are and what this means for future financial health.”

Mr Leathley said he would liaise with head of finance Andrew Rollins to “produce some words that would be appropriate to send out”.

Portfolio holder for resources, Councillor Jonathan Chilvers (Green, Leamington Brunswick) said he was “really disappointed” that efforts to produce fully audited books on time had not been successful but noted: “It is not to say there are no accounts, they are there but they are going to get a backstop opinion rather than the full process.

“It is really important that we now get 23-24 through and I have confidence that the capital asset part for 23-24 will be able to provide the information that the auditors need.

“I am disappointed we didn’t get to the stage of understanding what we could and couldn’t do (on that front) earlier with 21-22, that might have given us a bit more time.

“We have now got that very clear plan about what is going to happen between now and the backstop date.”

Committee chair Councillor Richard Hales (Con, Kenilworth Abbey & Arden) backed calls for the press release and said that lessons learned should be noted “to make sure we aren’t in this situation again”, but he ended on a positive note.

“Where we have got to is a far better place than where we started, I don’t want people to go away from this thinking the work has not taken place,” he said.