Council meets accounts deadline (From Brentwood Weekly News)

Council meets accounts deadline

7:00am Thursday 11th October 2012 in News

BOSSES at Brentwood Council will not to be left red faced over accounts, as they were last year.

In 2011 they missed the deadline to have their accounts for 2010/11 signed off for the Audit Commission’s report by more than three months.

However, the council has been able to rectify the problems which caused the mess last year and got the 2011/12 accounts signed off before the deadline.

The latest Audit Commission’s report said it had no reason to worry about the council’s financial statements or its value for money. On top of this, the audit fee was reduced by £50,000 while costs within town hall to compile the data were also decreased by £47,000 compared to 12-months-ago.

Councillor Chris Hossack, chairman of the council’s audit committee, said it was good not only to receive a positive report from the commission, but to have everything sorted before the deadline.

Mr Hossack said: “I am pleased, following a great amount of effort and hard work, we have closed the 2011/12 accounts before the end of September, a big improvement on last year’s position.

“The verdict given by the Audit Commission on our accounts shows we have a clean bill of health with our financial controls.

“This has meant we have reduced our audit commission fee on last year by some £50,000 at the same time as reducing our costs on the accounts closure project by £47,000, which is important for Brentwood taxpayer value.

“We have set the standard now and I do not anticipate any regression in this area.”

Mr Hossack went on to say the council would ensure the deadline was never missed again.

He said: “We still have to work with our onerous in-house financial management system to close the 2012/13 accounts so challenges remain.

“Beyond that, we are investing in a new system which should help provide further efficiencies within the council’s finance department.”