Issue - meetings

Pension Fund Audit Findings Report 2023/24

Meeting: 28/11/2024 - Audit and Standards Committee (Item 4)

4 Warwickshire Pension Fund Audit Findings Report 2023/24 pdf icon PDF 83 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee received a report from the Council’s External Auditor, Grant Thornton, which provided details of issues arising from the audit of Warwickshire Pension Fund’s financial statements prior to issuing a final opinion.

 

Avtar Sohal (Grant Thornton) introduced the report, stating that the auditing process had been well supported by the Council’s Pensions Team. The report outlined recommendations made at the previous year’s audit which had been acted upon by the Council. The audit of the Pension Fund was substantially complete and there were no matters which would require any modification of the audit opinion.

 

Councillor Gifford highlighted use of the term ‘trivial’ in an auditing context. He emphasised that this was a technical term; it was important to reassure Warwickshire residents that public money was not treated casually.

 

In response to Councillor Gifford, Avtar Sohal advised that the External Auditor had not identified any concerns about the migration of pensions data to Agresso Cloud. The commentary in the report related to concerns about supporting evidence around the migration process to provide a trail of actions taken. There were no concerns about data security. The essence of the recommendation was that such processes be more comprehensively documented in future. It was not considered to be a significant weakness or material deficiency.

 

The Chair highlighted the importance of cyber security and recent high profile cyberattacks targeted at big organisations nationally. Constant vigilance was required.

 

Avtar Sohal advised that cyber security formed a key element of the auditing process. It was recognised that new threats were constantly emerging with a need to remain vigilant. The audit had not identified any significant concerns about the Council’s IT systems, and cyber security would continue to be closely monitored. He would update the Committee if any cyber security concerns came to the External Auditor’s attention.

 

Rob Powell (Executive Director for Resources) stated that the threat of cyberattack was among the highest rated risks faced by the Council. Details were reported to the Committee as well as across other channels within the organisation. He emphasised that there was no complacency and cyberattacks were routinely repelled. The findings of the Audit related to the process of documenting procedural work that had been undertaken; there were no concerns about the robustness of the cyber security measures in place.

 

Subject to Section xiii (b) of the Letter of Representation being amended to substitute the word “entity” for “entry”, the Chair sought the Committee’s agreement that the recommendations of the report be accepted. This was agreed.

 

Resolved:

 

That the Audit and Standards Committee:

 

1.     Endorses the Audit Findings Report prepared by the External Auditor for the Warwickshire Pension Fund as attached at Appendix 1; and

2.     Approves, subject to any changes which may be necessary to the final draft, the wording of the Letter of Representation, attached at Appendix 2.