Agenda item

Deloitte - Annual Grants Audit Letter

Minutes:

Members were informed that the report for this item had been distributed late because three of the grant audits had required additional testing which had delayed their completion. They had been signed off by Deloitte on 30 November. The Committee noted this explanation and agreed to consider the report.

 

Zoe Prescott from Deloitte introduced the report. The main issues identified in the report were:

 

  •  8 grants had been certified, 7 of which were submitted and certified by the required deadline. The HRA base data was granted an extension and the grant was submitted and certified by the revised deadline.
  • As a result of errors identified during the audit, adjustments were made to 5 of the 8 grant claims prior to certification and qualification letters were issued in respect of 4 grant claims. Members were informed that the reasons for the qualifications were as follows:

 

  • HRA subsidy base data return - the Council was unable to provide an audit trail which supported the classification of housing stock

 

  • HRA subsidy return - in respect of two adjustments made on the return

 

  • Teachers’ pension return – officers had incorrectly classified additional payments as pensionable and thus deducted pension contributions in error. In addition, a school erroneously submitted teachers additional voluntary contributions (AVC) deductions to the Council rather than to the AVC provider and the Council then submitted to the Teachers’ pension return

 

  • Housing and council tax benefit return – initial testing of 80 cases identified errors on 13 cases, and further testing found a higher than normal level of errors on multiple cases

 

Members were informed that Deloitte would be holding a training session with those officers responsible for the completion of grant claims to help them better understand how to complete the claims taking them through the instructions they followed when undertaking the audit. They had also agreed to deliver a specific session targeted at the Housing Benefits claim.

 

In relation to the Teachers’ return, new arrangements were being implemented in this area and this work would be transferred to the Schools Finance from Payroll, which should provide additional rigour in future. Concern was expressed at schools opting for a payroll provider based on cost rather than quality. Members were informed that the Schools’ Auditor was working with the Schools’ Finance Teams on details of what services they should be receiving from a payroll provider.

 

In Housing and council tax benefits a comprehensive set of actions had been developed to address the audit findings. These included system changes to reduce transcription errors, additional guidelines and documents for Housing Benefit and Housing Needs staff, additional checking of individual calculations in a number of areas to reduce the risk of errors, regular support for staff outside of housing benefits responsible for input information for housing benefit processing and further training based on an analysis of audit findings.

 

Reference was made to the Gateway Grant and the issues which had been identified. Officers were working closely together on this.

 

The Deputy Director of Finance reported that grant work was an area of the Council’s performance which required improvement. He informed the Committee that a great deal of joint working was taking place with Deloitte across the Council to ensure officers were fully trained.

 

Members expressed some concern at the errors which had been identified but were encouraged at the steps that were being taken to ensure that performance in this area improved.

     

RESOLVED -    

 

1.        That the Annual Grant Audit Letter be noted.

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