The publication of Bedford Borough Council’s audited final statement of accounts has been delayed by the auditors’ staffing issues, a meeting heard.
Julie McCabe, the interim assistant chief executive (finance) & chief finance officer, told the Audit Committee on Monday (December 5) that the audit partners are behind where they would like to have been at this point.
“It is progressing, but there are several weeks’ work still to complete,” she said.
“We are now expecting to sign off the audit in February now.”
Cllr David Sawyer (LibDems, De Parys) asked what the auditors’ (EY) excuse was for this year.
Ms McCabe said: “It’s been a mixture of sickness with some of their team leads.
“And they haven’t had the experience in the team that they would have liked.
“So one of the things they will be looking for in the new year is to get staff that are more experienced than they’ve had for the first part of the audit,” she said.
Cllr Ben Foley (Green Party, Castle) said: “And they justify their high fees to us by saying it’s difficult to get experienced and highly qualified staff.
“So if they are not providing us with experienced and highly qualified staff what are we paying for?” he asked.
Committee chair, Clr Mohammed Masud (Labour, Queens Park) said: “When I went on a training course [recently] most attendees had a complaint about audit delays.
“And this time [the excuse was] they couldn’t get any workers from Europe.”
Ms McCabe said: “We know that staffing across the audit sector is problematic, so I think it’s not a surprise that they are behind.
“But the extent of which they are behind is disappointing.”
Councillor Sawyer gave an anecdotal example of auditing delays elsewhere, this time in Africa.
“A big audit firm is late in completing their report and their excuse is all their auditors are going to the UK.
“It just sounds like an excuse to me, I’m personally not convinced that EY gives this authority, and maybe other authorities as well, the attention that we/they deserve.
“Sickness is one thing I guess, but not having the right staff to do the audit is something that could have been avoided.
“Three months is a big delay, we had to make a public statement that our accounts are late, and anybody reading it will actually blame the council rather than the auditors.
“So I would like to register my disappointment,” he said.
The public notice of the delay (dated November 30) states: “The external audit of the draft statement of accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022 has not yet been completed by our external auditors, EY LLP, due to the planned phased approach to delivering the 2021/2022 audits in light of a variety of complex factors contributing to audit delays in previous years.”
An EY LLP statement sent to the Local Democracy Reporting Service said: “We do not comment on the organisations we audit.
“At EY, audit quality is paramount and will always take priority.”
by John Guinn
Local Democracy Reporter
