Issue - meetings
Audit Plan 2022/23
Meeting: 25/01/2024 - Audit and Governance Committee (Item 253)
253 External Audit Plan 2022/23 
PDF 79 KB
Purpose
To receive the 2022/23 Audit Plan from Grant Thornton, the Council’s external auditors.
Recommendation
That Audit and Governance Committee resolves to:
1. Consider and note the Grant Thornton Audit Plan for 2022/23.
Additional documents:
- Annex A Cotswold DC - External Audit Plan 2022-23, item 253
PDF 5 MB
- Interim Auditors Annual Report Cotswold District Council 2022 2023, item 253
PDF 9 MB
- Webcast for External Audit Plan 2022/23
Minutes:
Pete Barber of Grant Thornton introduced the item and explained that the item was to discuss the Audit Plan as well as the Interim Auditor’s Annual Report, which had been published as a supplement.
The purpose of the item was to receive the 2022/23 Audit Plan from Grant Thornton, the Council’s external auditors.
Members asked the Deputy Chief Executive about audit fees, making reference to the difficulty facing council finances nationwide. The Deputy Chief Executive confirmed that any additional fees would be agreed with the Council in advance, and that they were advised early on if this would be the case.
The Committee then discussed the Interim Auditor’s Annual Report. Pete Barber explained that statutory recommendations were made in serious cases, and that the Council did not have any, which was a positive indicator. The next level in terms of gravity were key recommendations, which would have been made if the auditor did not believe that effective arrangements for delivering value for money were in place, and the Council did not have any of those either. Mr Barber explained that the Council did have arrangements for delivering value for money. Therefore any recommendations made were improvements the Council could put in place to ensure best practice. The report highlighted the recommendations made but there were fewer recommendations than the previous year and fewer than for other similar authorities.
The Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance explained the arrangements around Ubico, and that plans were being looked at to potentially share vehicles between the other Teckal partners for efficiency and resilience.
There were recommendations around the Cabinet Transform Working Group (CTWG) in order to better assure that the governance arrangements around it were suitable for finding the savings it needed to identify. The Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance, as the chair of the CTWG, stated that he would discuss this with the Deputy Chief Executive but that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee also had a role in scrutinising proposals that come forward (e.g. changes to the opening hours of the Contact Centre). Pete Barber stated that they would discuss the recommendations with the officers offline, taking into consideration the Committee’s debate, emphasising that it was within the Council’s discretion whether or not to accept the recommendation.
RESOLVED: To note the Grant Thornton Audit Plan for 2022/23.