Annual Governance and Accountability Audit 2019/20
The Clerk/Responsible Financial Officer must prepare the ‘Annual Governance and Accountability Return’ document as follows:
Section 1 is the ‘Annual Governance Statement’ which lists a number of statements relating to financial activity, internal mechanisms of control, consideration of the results of previous Internal and External Audits and other aspects and expectations involved in the operation of the Parish Council. The Parish Council considers each aspect in detail and must agree and approve whether or not each aspect has been adhered to.
Section 2 completed by the Parish Council is the ‘Accounting Statements’ and is a summary of financial activity through the year. An analysis of the comparison of financial activity with the previous year, an explanation of any ‘significant variances’ is also sent to the External Auditor, together with a bank reconciliation for the end of the financial year.
The two completed sections of the Annual Governance and Accountability Return must be approved by the Parish Council. This took place on 11th June 2020 and the documents were signed by the Chairman, Councillor Lepley. Once these sections have been approved and the Internal Audit completed, the Annual Governance and Accountability Return is sent to the External Auditor PKF Littlejohn, for audit.
The Annual Governance and Accountability Return must be returned to the Parish Council by 30th November 2020, with a completed External Auditor’s Report.
The Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/234) as amended by the Accounts and Audit (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020/404) state that the Council must:
- Prepare a “Notice of conclusion of audit” which details the rights of inspection, in line with the statutory requirements. (See below.)
- Publish the certified AGAR (Sections 1, 2 & 3) before 30 November, which must include publication on the authority’s website. (See below.)
The Public Inspection Notice can be viewed here.
There is also an Summary of Public Rights which can be viewed here.
The Council's budget against actual expenditure information for 2019/2020 can be viewed here.