A summary of the quality and timeliness of financial reporting by councils, police authorities, fire and rescue authorities and local government bodies.
The report covers:
- auditors' work on the 2009/10 financial statements;
- the results of auditors' 2009/10 local value for money work;
- the public interest reports and statutory recommendations issued by auditors since December 2009; and
- the key financial management and financial reporting challenges for 2010/11.
The report congratulates seven councils, one police authority, three local government bodies and one fire and rescue authority for early publication. There is great interest in financial transparency by public bodies at the moment and we believe that early publication of audited accounts is an important contribution to openness and accountability.
The Commission reports that auditors were unable to give opinions on the accounts by 31 October 2010 at seven councils (2 per cent of the total) and 11 local government bodies (12 per cent). The report also names two councils where the auditor gave a qualified opinion.
All police authorities and fire and rescue authorities published their audited accounts by 31 October and none received a qualified audit opinion.
Please note the attached report has been updated, since the 16 December 2010 publication date, to include Kent and Medway Fire and Rescue Authority which was incorrectly omitted from Table 1 and Appendix 1.
Updated 24 February 2011
The Audit Commission has published its Auditing the Accounts report summarising the timeliness and quality of financial reporting by parish councils in 2009/10. The report covers 9,397 parish councils each with an annual turnover less than £1 million.
Overall, the report found that parish councils’ financial reporting is improving. Auditors issued the opinion on the 2009/10 annual return by 30 September at 8,768 parish councils (93 per cent). However, it names eight parish councils that failed to publish an annual return for the last three years or more, and emphasises that these bodies are not providing the basic level of accountability to which local electors are entitled.
Between April 2009 and December 2010, auditors issued public interest reports to 58 parish councils. Most reports related to the parish council's failure to produce, or provide sufficient evidence to support, the annual return. In the Commission’s view, it is unacceptable that parish councils should fail persistently to publish an audited annual return, yet continue to receive and spend local taxpayers’ money.
Auditors issued an unqualified opinion on the 2009/10 annual return at 87 per cent of parish councils compared to 83 per cent in 2008/09. The report acknowledges this improvement, but highlights that weaknesses in governance arrangements that resulted in auditors issuing a qualified opinion may leave parish councils open to the possibility of financial mismanagement or fraud.
The Commission has also published a list of qualified 2009/10 opinions. The list identifies those individual parish councils where auditors issued a qualified opinion on the 2009/10 annual return, and whether the opinion was also qualified in either of the previous two years.