Decision details

The Chair welcomed Karen Murray, Director for Grant Thornton, to the meeting. Karen presented a report on the Lancashire County Council External Audit Plan for 2014/15.

The Audit Plan set out the nature and scope of work that the Authority's external auditor would carry out to discharge its statutory responsibilities, compliant with the Audit Commission Act 1998 and the Code of Audit Practice for Local Government.

This Audit Plan was specific to the financial year 2014/15 and set out in broad terms the programme of work required to give a financial opinion on whether the financial statements:

·  Gave a true and fair view of the financial position of the County council as at 31 March 2015 and of its expenditure and income for the year then ended;

·  Had been prepared in accordance with proper accounting practice;

·  Gave a Value for Money conclusion

There were two significant risks identified in the Audit Plan that External Audit would focus its efforts on. These were:

·  The revenue cycle included fraudulent transactions

·  Management over-ride of controls

Other risks identified in the Audit Plan were:

·  Operating expenses

·  Employee remuneration

·  Accounting for local authority maintained schools

·  Waste PFI

·  City Deal

The Committee was informed that External Audit had undertaken a risk assessment to identify areas of risks to the Value for Money conclusion. Four areas focussed on were:

·  Action taken by management in response to the issues raised in the 2013/14 annual governance statement and the County Council's arrangements to prepare the statement for this year

·  Review of the overall governance framework

·  LCC's progress in delivering savings and the associated transformation programme included in the 2014/15 budget

·  The robustness of the 2015/16 budget and plans to 2017/18 which identified savings of £146.2 million in the three years period.

Members were informed that the audit would be completed by the end of September 2015.

Resolved: That the Committee note the External Audit Plan for the audit of the County Council for 2014/15