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Issue - meetings

EXTERNAL AUDIT PLAN & STRATEGY 24/25 (KPMG)

 

 

Meeting: 11/06/2025 - Finance, Audit and Risk Committee (Item 7)

7 EXTERNAL AUDIT PLAN & STRATEGY 24/25 (KPMG) pdf icon PDF 728 KB

REPORT OF DIRECTOR – KPMG

 

To receive the Audit Plan for 2024/25.

Decision:

RESOLVED: That the Committee noted the External Audit Plan & Strategy 24/25.

 

REASON FOR DECISION: To enable the Committee to be provided with the outlined approach by KPMG to the audit of the Council’s financial statements for the year ending 31 March 2025.

 

 

Minutes:

Audio recording – 24 minutes 35 seconds

 

The Engagement Director KPMG presented the report entitled ‘External Audit Plan & Strategy 24/25 (KPMG)’ and highlighted that:

 

·       The 2024/25 audit was impacted by the 2023/24 audit delay.

·       Four areas of significant risks were identified through audit of the accounts, which were valuation of land and buildings, valuation of investment property, valuation of post-retirement benefit obligations, and management override of controls.

·       The Council migrated the general ledger software in August 2024 which posed a risk of incomplete or inaccurate data having been migrated over.

·       The approach of KPMG to value for money reporting was outlined on page 16.

 

In response to questions from the Independent Member John Cannon, the Engagement Director KPMG advised that public sector organisations did not have revenue recognition risks, but rather the risks were associated with expenditure. Currently, there had been no expenditure risk identified, but going forward the project overspends might occur and this could be identified as a specific audit area, but that would not be included here as a fraudulent risk, unless this was flagged in the risk assessment process.

 

In response to questions from the Independent Member John Cannon, the Director – Resources stated that the new General Ledger System was robust and was used by a number of other local authorities. The system was chosen following a full procurement process, which included evaluation and comparison with competitors.

 

Councillor Stewart Willoughby proposed and Councillor Vijaiya Poopalasingham seconded and, following a vote, it was:

 

RESOLVED: That the Committee noted the External Audit Plan & Strategy 24/25.

 

REASON FOR DECISION: To enable the Committee to be provided with the outlined approach by KPMG to the audit of the Council’s financial statements for the year ending 31 March 2025.