Councillor E Burtenshaw was replaced by Councillor Laventure and Councillor Poole was replaced by Councillor A Burtenshaw for this meeting.
Apologies were received from Councillor Sharpe, Portfolio Holder for Finance.

There were no disclosures of interest.

The minutes of the meeting held on 23rd June 2008 were submitted and signed

This report had been submitted late due to the pressure in achieving the tight timetable for the closure and audit of the accounts. This had meant that the auditor's report could not be published in line with the Committee agenda deadlines. As the Council was required to have the auditor's report approved by the end of September 2008, this report needed to be considered by this Committee.

The Committee received the external auditor's Annual report to those charged with governance for the financial year 2007/08. The Auditors were present at the meeting to introduce the report and answer questions.

Martin Grundy of Grant Thornton introduced the report stating that the process had run smoothly. The report was very positive and unqualified opinions were expected to be issued in respect of both the Accounts and the Value for Money conclusion by the 30th September deadline. The Housing Stock Transfer had featured quite heavily but the transaction had been properly presented and there were no issues of concern.

The Letter of Representation attached to the report confirmed that the Council had brought all relevant information to the auditors' attention. It was a standard letter except for paragraph xix which related to the transfer of the housing stock.

Richard Lawson drew the Committee's attention to the Action Plan attached as Appendix C to the report and specifically to action required in respect of operating leases and record keeping. The Committee also noted that only two adjustments had required amendment, neither of which changed the Council's financial position from that reported in June.

The Chair referred to the large sums which featured in the accounts this year resulting from the Housing Stock Transfer and asked the auditors whether they were happy with the way these transactions had been dealt with. The auditors confirmed that the figures would look much the same in any authority which had been through the stock transfer process and that they had no issues with the way the transactions had been handled. They did not represent a poor decision or poor value for money. In response to a question from another Member, the auditors confirmed that the housing stock process had been handled in the same way by all affected authorities.

The Interim Finance Manager concluded by expressing his thanks to all those involved in the production of the Accounts and to the external auditors for their work. He added that the fact that Grant Thornton had looked at draft proposals in advance had proved very useful.

The Chair also added his thanks to everyone for the work done.

The Committee received a report attaching the Annual Ombudsman's Letter for the year ending 31st March 2008.

A Member referred specifically to the Ombudsman's comment on the length of time taken to answer enquiries relating to planning complaints. The Democratic Services Manager explained that the delays had been as a result of the time taken by the Legal Department in co-ordinating replies and that steps had now been taken to ensure that responses were made in a timely manner in future. The Committee asked for specific details in respect of the action taken and the Democratic Services Manager agreed to ask the Head of Legal & Property Services to circulate this information to members of the Committee.

In response to an further question from the Member, the Democratic Services Manager agreed to find out whether the training in complaint handling was also available for Members.

The Committee received a report on the work undertaken by Internal Audit for the period 1st April 2008 to 31st August 2008.

The Audit Manager introduced the report and its appendices. He commented on the disappointing length of time it had taken to complete some of the 2007/08 audits. The 2008/09 audit of the key financial systems would begin shortly.

The Chair asked about progress on shared services. The Audit Manager explained that there were still some issues outstanding which were delaying the process. He added that internal audit at Three Rivers District Council was currently handled by Deloitte's and that their contract came to an end in March 2010.

Martin Grundy explained that it was not unusual for an authority to engage a private company to carry out its internal audit function and usually occurred where there was a recruitment and retention issue or where specialist skills were required. The ideal situation was to have access to both in-house capability and external providers for specific skills. Continuity was very important for internal audit.

A Member commented on the number of days spent on Performance Indicators (PIs) compared with other audits. The Audit Manager responded that this was one of their larger projects and involved a fair amount of in-depth work.

In response to another Member question about how shared services would impact on the Audit Team's workload, the Audit Manager said that he hoped extra resources would be made available if necessary.

The Chair thanked the Audit Manager for his report and also thanked Martin Grundy and Richard Lawson of Grant Thornton for their contribution to the meeting.