Council accounts viewable

[ianr]

[From the Southwark News (print version) 16 June 2011]

Southwark Council

AUDIT OF ACCOUNTS YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2011

Audit Commission Act 1998, sections 15-16

Accounts and Audit (England) Regulations 2011 (regulations 9,10,21,22 and 23)

Southwark Council's accounts are subject to external audit by Susan M Exton, District Auditor, Audit Commission, 1st Floor, Millbank Tower, London SW1P 4HQ. Members of the public and local government electors have certain rights in the audit process.

1. From 4 July to 29 July 2011 between 9am and 4.30pm any person may inspect the accounts of the council for the year ended 31 March 2011 and certain related documents (comprising books, deeds, contracts, bills, vouchers and receipts) at the address given below. They may also make copies of the accounts and documents.

2. From 1 August 2011 until the conclusion of the audit process, a local government elector for the area of the council, or his/her representative, may ask the auditor questions about the accounts. Please contact the auditor at the address given above to make arrangements to ask any questions.

3. From 1 August 2011 until the conclusion of the audit process, a local government elector for the area of the council, or his/her representative, may object to the council's accounts asking that the auditor issue a report in the public interest (under section 8 of the Audit Commsission Act 1998) and/or apply to the court for a declaration that an item in the accounts is contrary to law (under section 17 of the Audit Commission Act 1998). Written notice of a proposed objection and the grounds on which it is made must be sent to the auditor at the address given above and copied to me at the address given below.

Dated 16 June 2011

Duncan Whitfield, finance director

Address for visitors:

Southwark Council

160 Tooley Street

London

SE1 2QH

Address for correspondence

Duncan Whitfield

Finance Director

Southwark Council

PO Box 64529

SE1P 5LX

www.southwark.gov.uk

[ianr]

Has anyone made use of this inspection facility?

[PeckhamRose]

Yeah, any professional accountants or anyone who can understand them, members of EDF so they can tell us what we can't see?!

[James Barber]

We have had one chap object to the last five years accounts. Each of these objections has cost the council MANY tens of thousands of pounds for the audit commission to investigate.

The council has an Audit & Governance committee which I sit on and has plotically rotating chair have chaired in the past. It was meant ot have tory chair this year but they messed up somehow. We never have any members of the public coming along but all are welcome. Meeting dates.

The last meeting was a hum dinger - annaul fraud report pages 8-28 sections 28, 32, 48, 52, 56 in particular of the following:

http://moderngov.southwarksites.com/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=3868&T=10

A question I've asked via colleagues is when fires have happened in council blocks officers have anecdotally told me very high proportion of illegal sub letting detected and I've asked what has this been found to be.

[ianr]

>We have had one chap object to the last five years accounts. Each of these objections has cost the

>council MANY tens of thousands of pounds for the audit commission to investigate.

Well, looking at just the Annual Audit and Inspection latter of March 2009, I see there were two objections noted:

"31 Two electors have given notices of objection to the Council?s 2007/08 financial statement in respect of:

- a query as to whether the cost of a street sign has been correctly charged to the HRA or the general fund; and

- an enquiry regarding how the Council has computed claims for the award of costs for summons and liability order applications in respect of council tax demands.

The audit cannot be formally concluded, and an audit certificate issued, until these issues and legality matters arising from the audit have been resolved."

I'm not an accountant, but those questions don't on the face of it look to me necessarily difficult to answer. Could it be possible for even a vexatious objector to occasion great expense, if the accounting systems and procedures are in good shape?

Whereas, on the council's side, the auditor wrote:

"28 The financial statements were presented for audit on 25 June 2008 in accordance with the statutory deadline. Not all supporting working papers were available from the outset of our audit. The quality of the working papers and supporting audit trails, and the arrangements for providing responses to audit queries, require improvement. Consequently there were significant delays in the completion of our audit work. The audit team worked with your officers to resolve the issues arising from the above and to agree a revised audit timetable. However, as reported to the Audit and Governance Committee on 25 September 2008, the Council could not respond to the audit queries in sufficient time to enable the team to complete the audit by 30 September 2008."

[James Barber]

Hi ianr,

Sadly no rules to declare an objection vexatious. Ita a very convoluted process and as a member of the Audit and Governance committee it was a relief they didn't follow it through to the courts.

The working papers is annoying. Ive repeatedly asked the audit commission for a copy of their annual audit project plan. They've never been able to produce one. I did once try to FOI it but they declared it had to e kept secret. So without such a plan and listing when they need to see what papers it does make it harder for council officers to support. But i suspect it's 6 of one and half a dozen of the other.

[curlykaren]

James, I think ianr is suggesting that he can see no basis for you to state that this individuals objections should have cost tens of thousands of pounds to resolve?

Surely if council officers have kept organised and rigorous records of financial dealings then it shouldn't really matter when they are asked to make them available?