Concerns over City Hall finances (Norwich Liberal Democrats Online)

Norwich Liberal Democrats Online <info@norwichlibdems.org.uk>

Concerns over City Hall finances

December 14, 2011 12:58 PM

Councillor James Wright (Eaton) Liberal Democrats at City Hall have raised concerns over Norwich City Council's financial performance after the Audit Commission highlighted ongoing problems for the authority.

In the Annual Governance Report, which will be discussed at the Council's Audit Committee this week, a number of concerns were raised. These include:

The volume of errors and missing information mean the Auditor is unable to sign-off the council's books.
There are "significant weaknesses in internal (financial) control" which have led the Auditor to conclude he is "unable to place any reliance on (it)".
Financial statements "submitted for audit were late, contained significant errors or inaccurate disclosure requirements".
There is a risk that the council's financial statements do not meet new IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards).
The council does not keep a record of its contracts and its information on leases is "inconsistent... difficult to locate…. and could be not fully up to date".
There are concerns over the council's asset register and process for valuing assets.

Due to these problems and delays, the Auditor will need to do more work and the council will be charged an extra £51,000 initially plus a further fee when the Audit is finally completed.

Cllr James Wright, Liberal Democrat Member of the Audit Committee, commented:

"I am deeply concerned about this report. The Auditor is unable to sign-off the council's accounts, raises significant concerns about internal financial controls and reports on numerous mistakes and inconsistencies. I have raised some of these issues before and it is clear to me that a lot more needs to be done before anyone can have confidence in the financial robustness of the City Council.

"The delays and extra work the Auditor needs to do will initially cost £51,000 and there will be a further fee when the books are finally sorted. This is money that the Council can ill-afford and is another example of poor performance costing the Council money. After five years of Labour control at City Hall financial performance remains unacceptable; as opposition councillors we need to continue to ask the tough questions and we need to really look at how we can improve the Council's financial performance."

ENDS

The full report can be found here: http://www.norwich.gov.uk/CommitteeMeetings/Audit/default.aspx?InstanceID=32 . It will be discussed at City Hall at 4:00pm on Wednesday.