Issue - meetings

The Deputy Chief Executive and Section 151 Officerpresented the Finance Recovery Programme Report for the consideration of the Committee. Members were advised that a report much like this was considered at each Audit, Governance and Standards Committee meeting. It was important that the processes put in place following the issuing of the Section 24 Statement were also continued via this half yearly Finance Recovery Plan. 

It had been a significant year for the Finance Team. Including the delivery of the Council’s Statement of Accounts, with the closure of the accounts for the financial years 2020 – 2021, 2021 – 2022 and 22 – 23 with a ‘Disclaimer Opinion’ being received and approved for these years. Draft Accounts for the 2023 – 2024 year had been available for public consultation since 17^th January 2025.  This consultation was due to close on 3^rd March 2025. The Accounting Opinion could not be issued until the external auditors had been onboarded. However, it was noted that Officers and Members had all now competed the validation process in just four months, ahead of the six to twelve months projected by Ernst & Young. The key issue still to be resolved across the Country was reported as what were the implications and impact of so many “Disclaimer Opinions” on the sector and individual Councils.

The Committee was informed that the Key Deliverables achieved since the last meeting included the following:

·       TechOne had been upgraded to version 24B in February 2025.

·       The 2025/6 MTFP process has been completed in both Councils and the 2025/6 process started.

·       More Budget Consultation had been addressed in Tranche 1 of the budget.

·       Performance Indicators had been reviewed and updated following the Strategic Priority and Service Business Planning sessions.

Members thanked the Deputy Chief Executive and all of the Finance Team for their hard work in respect of this positive report which detailed the significant steps Officers had made during this period.

RESOLVED that

1)    Progress made on the financial recovery be noted including:

·       Delivery of the Statutory Accounts

·       Delivery of Statutory Financial Returns

·       Improvements in the Control Environment

2)    The work still under way to move back to a best practice operation and the associated timetable for completion of this work, as contained in this report, be noted.