Issue - meetings

Report by Chief Operating Officer

40.1     The Cabinet considered a report by the Chief Operating Officer

40.2     It was RESOLVED to approve the Annual Audit Letter and fee update for 2016/17

Reason

40.3    The Annual Audit Letter summarises the key issues arising from the work carried out by the Council’s external auditor (KPMG) during the year. This report contains no new findings or recommendations, but reflects the key issues already reported in the Annual Governance Report

Report by the Chief Operating Officer.

33.1     The Head of Accounts and Pensions introduced report. He explained that the Council’s External Auditors, KPMG had not been able to issue final certificate due to an objection by an elector. This is still under investigation and will be reported back to committee when resolved. There has been no increase in the External Auditor’s fee from the financial year 2016/17 to 2017/18.

33.2     The Committee asked for more information on the nature of the objection. The Head of Accounts and Pensions explained that the objection relates to a LOBO (lender option, borrower option) loan and the objector is challenging the rate at which the loan was taken out several years ago, which was higher than present interest rates.

33.3     The Chief Operating Officer outlined that this is a national issue as other local authorities took out LOBO loans at around the same time. KPMG say this is part of a national campaign, and they are collating all the data in order to complete their investigation. This is taking a little longer to complete due to the amount of data needed.

33.4     The Committee asked if the objection is about the original decision to take out the loan. The Chief Finance Officer confirmed that it is, and is about an alleged breach of fiduciary duty to take out loans at a competitive rate. The Committee will be advised when objection has been resolved.

33.5     The Committee RESOLVED to note the Annual Audit Letter and the fee update for 2016/17.