Agenda item

To consider the report of the Head of Finance, Gwynedd Council.

(a) That the Joint Committee accepts, notes and approves the information in the appendices to the report, namely -

 

·         ‘ISA260’ report by Deloitte on behalf of Auditor General for Wales; 

·         Statement of accounts 2019/20 (following audit), with the late amendments noted in the meeting as requested by the external auditors, following the Statement release to Joint Committee members.

 

(b) That the Chair of the meeting, along with Gwynedd Council Head of Finance (as GwE Statutory Finance Officer), electronically sign the Representation Letter (Appendix 1 to the Auditor General for Wales report) once the information in the appendices has been considered by the Joint Committee.

 

DECISION

 

(a)     To receive, note and approve the information contained in the report, namely –

 

·          ‘ISA260’ Report by Deloitte on behalf of the Wales Auditor General;

·         Statement of Accounts 2019/20 (following the audit), with the late adaptations noted in the meeting at the request of the external auditors, following the release of the Statement of members of the Joint Committee.

 

(b)     Authorise the meeting Chair, together with the Gwynedd Council Head of Finance (as GwE’s Statutory Finance Officer), to sign the Letter of Representation (Appendix 1 to the Wales Auditor General’s report) after the Joint Committee has considered the information contained in the report.

 

Discussion

 

A report was submitted by the Gwynedd Council Head of Finance explaining that GwE’s Statement of Accounts for 2019/20 submitted to the Joint Committee meeting on 15 July, 2020 was subject to an audit by Deloitte, external auditors appointed by the Wales Auditor General . Futher, that this meeting of the Joint Committee needs to consider the information contained in the Wales Auditor General’s ‘ISA260’ report, detailing Deloitte’s main findings, together with the final version (following audit) of the Statement of Accounts for 2019/20. 

 

After the Joint Committee considered the above, the Chair of the meeting, together with the Gwynedd Council Head of Finance (as GwE’s Statutory Finance Officer), electronically signed the Letter of Representation (Appendix 1 to the Wales Auditor General’s report).

 

Further noted, following the publication of the Joint Committee’s programme, that the external auditor stated that the accounts of GwE, as an employer in the Gwynedd Pension Fund, reflected the general valuation uncertainty associated with investments in property funds in the Pension Fund’s assets portfolio as at 31 March 2020, as follows:-

 

NARRATIVE REPORT (paragraph 3) [p. 2]

“The accounts have been prepared on an operational business basis.”

 

NOTE 1 – ACCOUNTING POLICIES [p. 12]

1.1 General Principles

 

“The accounts have been prepared on an operational business basis.”

 

NOTE 5 – ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING THE FUTURE AND OTHER SOURCES OF UNCERTAIN ESTIMATE [p. 18]

 

“The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has affected the global finance and property markets. In the wake of the markets’ volatility, end of year valuation reports provided for the Gwynedd Pension Fund include a statement that there is valuation uncertainty associated with the UK property funds managed on behalf of the Fund. The total value of the UK property funds as on 31 March 2020 is £191m and £1.7m is to be attributed to GwE. As a result, the property fund valuations as on 31 March 2020 could be subject to a higher level of uncertainty.”

 

Ian Howse from Deloitte UK was invited to present Deloitte’s ‘ISA260’ report on behalf of the Wales Auditor General. He noted that:-

 

·         The proposal to publish an unconditional opinion on this year’s accounts, once the Letter of representation has been signed

·         No significant risks had been highlighted.

·         The COVID situation had affected this year’s work timetable.

·         No uncorrected misstatements were found in the accounts.

·         There was no need to correct any statements as a result of the audit work. Amendments to the accounts as a result of the audit work related to minor disclosure issues only.

·         No signifiacnt issues arose in the accounts for the year.

·         He approved the report and asked the Joint Committee to confirm that they were not aware of any fraud.

 

The Chair confirmed that the Joint Committee was not aware of any fraud, and thanked the Head of Finance and the Team for presenting the accounts so that they could be signed with minor amendments only.

 

GwE’s Managing Director thanked the Head of Finance, the Group Accountant and Senior Accountat and the whole Team for their continuing robust support, noting that the standard of the Statement of Accounts and Deloitte’s positive opinion on it confirmed that the Finance service received by the host authority is particularly good.

 

The Chair gave formal thanks for the financial support, and also thanked Ian Howse for his input and for the assurance given to the Joint Committee.

 

The Head of Finance thanked Ian Howse, Lauren Parsons and the rest of the Deloitte team for their co-operation during the audit.