6 Warwickshire County Council Annual Audit Letter 2023/24 PDF 58 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Andrew Harper (Head of Strategic Finance) introduced the report, stating that the Annual Audit Letter provided an opinion by the External Auditor of financial sustainability, governance, as well as measures in place to secure economy, efficiency, and effectiveness. Grant Thornton had not identified any significant weaknesses across these criteria. The report outlined three minor improvement recommendations which were being addressed.
Avtar Sohal (Grant Thornton) advised that the Annual Audit Report compared well to annual reports for many other local authorities. Most councils had been found to have at least one significant weakness by external auditors. Most commonly, these related to financial sustainability. It was recognised that financial circumstances were likely to become more challenging for Warwickshire County Council; however, the Council was in a better financial position than many other local authorities. The inclusion of a small number of improvement recommendations was a very good result.
The Chair stated that the results of the Annual Audit were very encouraging.
Resolved:
That the Audit and Standards Committee notes the External Auditor’s Annual Audit Report.