Agenda and minutes

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Items
No. Item

47.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND NOTIFICATION OF SUBSTITUTE MEMBERS

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Vanessa Allen.

48.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Minutes:

Councillor Russell Mellor declared an interest as a benefactor from the Bromley Pension Fund.

 

Councillor Mary Cooke declared an interest in that her step daughter was married to the Financial Director of Cushman and Wakefield UK.      

49.

QUESTIONS

In accordance with the Council’s Constitution, general questions are not taken at special meetings.

 

Questions specifically on reports on the agenda should be received within two working days of the normal publication date of the agenda.  Please ensure that any questions specifically on reports on this agenda are received by the Democratic Services Team by 5pm on Friday 22nd November 2019.

Minutes:

No questions were received.

50.

AUDIT OF FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 2018/19 pdf icon PDF 208 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Members noted the report submitted by the Chief Accountant regarding the audit of the Council’s financial statements for 2018/2019. The purpose of the report was twofold:

 

·  To set out the 2018/2019 pension fund accounts for approval by Members

 

·  To provide an update on the audit of the Council’s main accounts

 

The Committee noted that the Council’s external auditors had not yet been able to conclude their audit of the Council’s main accounts due to issues relating to asset valuations.  In all other respects, the audit was substantially complete.

 

The external auditors had identified errors in the external valuation of the Council’s land and buildings, and this would need to be rectified. A full revaluation exercise was being undertaken which was hoped to be completed by December 31st.

 

The Director of Housing, Planning and Regeneration informed Members that 450 properties needed to be re-valued. It was anticipated that a further 60 properties would be revalued by December 31st. This would then mean that in the region of 90% to 95% of the total asset value would have been revalued. Two Registered Valuers had been brought in to help with the remaining valuations and a third could be used if required. 

 

A Member suggested that work should begin now on sourcing the third Registered Valuer as this may take time. The Director of Housing, Planning and Regeneration confirmed that work on sourcing the third Registered Valuer was already underway.

 

The Chairman expressed her thanks to the Director of Housing, Planning and Regeneration, the Chief Accountant, the Director of Finance and the Assistant Director for Strategic Property for the considerable extra hard work that had been required to rectify the situation.

 

Members were reminded that there had been objections to the Council’s accounts for the periods 2016/2017, 2017/2018 and 2018/2019. The objections had been received from the same elector and because of the objections it was still not possible to formally conclude the audits and issue an audit certificate.

 

A Member asked the Director of Corporate Services for an update regarding the objections to the accounts. The Director responded that most of the questions raised through the external auditors had now been answered.

 

The Director of Finance pointed out that Ernst and Young could not progress matters, as KPMG needed to finish their work regarding the previous years’ objections first. KPMG had requested a meeting with the Chief Accountant and the Director of Environment and Public Protection during which it was hoped matters could be finalised.

 

A Member asked about internal checks on the original valuations and asked what would be done in the future to make sure there was no repetition. The Director of Housing, Planning and Regeneration assured that this was being reviewed, and that the appropriate controls would be in place going forward.

 

A Member raised the issue of no internal checks being undertaken on the original Cushman and Wakefield valuations and asked what would be done in the future to make sure this was not  ...  view the full minutes text for item 50.