Report by Chief Finance Officer.
4
Under reference to item 7 of the Minute of the meeting of the IJB held on 25 June 2021, the Chief Finance Officer submitted a report outlining Audit Scotland’s findings from the audit of the IJB’s financial statements for 2020/21. A copy of the report by Audit Scotland was appended.
The report advised that, in terms of the Local Authority Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2014, IJBs must meet to consider the annual accounts and aim to approve those accounts for signature no later than 30 September immediately following the financial year to which they related. Due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, additional flexibility in terms of the approval process was provided under the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020, which enabled the IJB to set its own timetable for approval of the audited accounts.
However, Scottish Ministers indicated, in Finance Circular 10/2020, that they considered audited accounts should be published, and therefore approved by the IJB, no later than 30 November 2021. In order to comply with these requirements, the audited financial statements would be presented to the IJB at a meeting scheduled to be held on 19 November 2021.
The Audit Director made reference to the covering letter, the independent auditor’s report and the draft letter of representation. He provided an overview of Audit Scotland’s proposed 2020/21 Annual Audit Report and advised that the audit opinions on the IJB’s accounts were unqualified and that the accounts presented a true and fair view of the financial position of the IJB. He indicated that the very positive year-end position was due to additional Scottish Government funding to cover Covid-19 related costs which had produced an inflated year-end surplus. However, this position masked continuing financial challenges for the IJB. In relation to the letter of representation, he advised that this contained nothing of particular concern and that all matters were standard representation items. An additional recommendation had been added in relation to COVID-19, consistent with other organisations, to reflect the different circumstances we were working under this year.
The Audit Director thanked the Chief Finance Officer and her team, for their help and support throughout the process and advised members that the quality of the working papers provided during the audit process were of a very high standard.
The Chief Finance Officer also thanked the HSCP finance team and the team from Audit Scotland for the work undertaken as part of the audit process and noted that the quality of the work provided was of a very high standard. Further that paragraph 17 in the Letter of Representation required to be removed as it did not relate to the IJB.
Following discussion, the Audit Director advised that typos within the report, which had been raised by the Vice Chair, would be corrected and agreed to consider and, where appropriate, amend the wording to provide greater clarity in the reports prior to submission to the IJB.
DECIDED: That the Audit Scotland reports, as amended, be noted.