Issue - meetings

Report of the Chief Executive (enclosed)

The Committee were reminded of the various arrangements available to the Council to appoint its external auditor beyond the 2017/18 financial year when the current contract with Grant Thornton came to an end. These included setting up an independent auditor appointment panel or opting into a Sector Led Body (SLB) that would negotiate contracts and make appointment on behalf of councils. The advantages and disadvantages of the various options available were highlighted within the report.

Although the Council had until December 2017 to make an appointment, in practical terms, this would mean that one of the options would need to be in place by spring, to facilitate the negotiation process.

The Local Government Association (LGA) is strongly supportive of the SLB approach as it believes this offers best value to Councils by reducing set-up cost and having the potential to negotiate the lowest fees in order to deliver economic and efficient external audit arrangements across all authorities.

Public Sector Audit Appointments LTD (PSAA) has been chosen by the Secretary of State by the SLB and on 27 October 2016 and the Council had received a formal letter of invitation to opt in to the sector led approach. The length of the compulsory appointing period is five consecutive years from 1 April 2018 and any decision to become an opted-in authority must be taken in accordance with prevailing regulations, that is by the members of an authority meeting as a whole (in the case of Chorley Council). The closing date of acceptance is 9 March 2017.

RESOLVED – To recommend to full Council to approve option 3 in the report, thereby accepting the invitation from Public Sector Audit Appointments Ltd, to become an opted-in authority for the purposes of the appointment of its external auditor thus dispensing with the need to set up its own appointment panel.