Issue - meetings

Dewi Morgan (Host Authority Head of Finance and Statutory Finance Officer) and Sian Pugh (Host Authority Assistant Head of Finance) to present the report.

1.     'ISA260’ report by Audit Wales in respect of NWEAB

2.     NWEAB’s final Statement of Accounts for 2022/23 (post-audit)

The report was submitted by the Finance Officer.

RESOLVED

1.     To approve the 'ISA260’ report by Audit Wales in respect of NWEAB

2.     To approve NWEAB’s final Statement of Accounts for 2022/23 (post-audit)

REASONS FOR THE DECISION

The Chair, together with the Head of Finance, are required to certify the Letter of Representation, electronically (Appendix 1) after the NWEAB approve the above. The Auditor General for Wales (Adrian Crompton) will issue the Certificate on the accounts.

DISCUSSION

It has been confirmed that the annual Statement of Accounts has been prepared in accordance with the Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting, and has been verified by Audit Wales. It was noted that Audit Wales were the external auditors of NWEAB, and had reviewed the statements. Attention was drawn to the fact that Audit Wales intended to publish an unqualified audit opinion on this year's accounts, when the Board will have issued a Letter of Representation based on what is set out in Appendix 1. The need for the Chair and the Statutory Finance Officer to sign that letter before forwarding it was explained.

It was explained that Appendix 3 referred to corrections he made to the accounts during the audit. One correction was detailed as the result of correcting information received by the actuary from the perspective of information about the pension commitment. It was explained that the second correction related to an item which had been included in the cash flow statement where it should not. It was confirmed there was no impact on Total Comprehensive Income and Expenditure or the pension reserve fund closure situation.

The relevant officers of Audit Wales and Cyngor Gwynedd's Finance Department were thanked for their work.