Statement of Accounts 2011/2012 - Blackburn with Darwen Borough ...

ANNUAL GOVERNANCE STATEMENT
Officers on a wide range of reviews. Overview and Scrutiny arrangements have been reviewed and
streamlined at Annual Council on the 17th May 2012.
The Audit Committee, in addition to having responsibility for reviewing the Corporate Governance
Framework, also has responsibility for reviewing the effectiveness of risk management arrangements.
The Standards Committee promotes and maintains high standards of Member conduct and monitors the
operation of the Code of Conduct. The committee also assesses and determines member complaints.
The Localism Act 2011 has brought changes to the standards regime. The existing standards regime is
currently being considered and will be replaced by new standards arrangements from 1 July 2011, which
will include new arrangements for dealing with member complaints. Standards for England has now been
abolished and all member complaints will need to be considered by the authorities themselves.
7. The existing elements for maintaining and reviewing the effectiveness of the framework
include:
The Council has had robust corporate governance and management arrangements in place for many
years which have led to good financial management, the delivery of efficiencies and planned investment
in priorities. The Council is already implementing improvements to these business systems and
processes.
Audit and Assurance produces an annual strategy and plan which are approved by the Audit Committee.
It reports to individual managers on the outcomes of its audit reviews, agreeing management actions with
them. It also reports to the Audit Committee on progress and outcomes of its planned work. Throughout
the year, it reviews and reports to the Chief Executive on matters arising from the Management
Accountabilities Framework reports. At the year end, it produces a statutory opinion report which is part of
the Annual Governance Statement Process. Routinely, each quarter, Audit and Assurance reports to the
Chief Executive on governance matters of particular importance through its independent reviews of MAF
reports.
The Audit and Assurance Strategy sets out the internal audit resources and skills requirement. The staff
resources are considered adequate for the Council’s current needs to ensure that it meets the
requirements of the Accounts and Audit Regulations. The resources are prioritised to consider the
fundamental systems and most significant risks identified in the annual Audit Plan. Reviews of these
areas are required to provide a statutory opinion for the Annual Governance Statement.
The Council is continuing with a series of transformational projects which will generate efficiencies during
2012/13 and in future years. The Transformation Board was established to ensure that these planned
efficiencies were delivered. It will continue to drive and monitor the service reviews that are being
undertaken to closely manage the achievement of budget savings in 2012/13 and future years.
Financial Controls – The integrated financial ledger system is very tightly controlled. Daily integrity checks
are undertaken to ensure that at the highest level all the debits and credits balance, and that portfolio
totals are all in line in respect of both objective and subjective code analyses. The control figures in
respect of accounts payable and accounts receivable are also checked each day.
All external feeders into the ledger are monitored to ensure that not only are all feeders input promptly,
but that the correct feeders are input without duplication.
The main bank account of the Council is reconciled to the ledger system controls on a weekly basis, and
the income account monthly (although separate daily bank and cash book reconciliations are undertaken
by Capita’s revenues section).
Systems are in place to ensure that subsidiary systems such as Council Tax, Business Rates and
Housing Benefits are also reconciled on daily and weekly frequencies.
The Council produces integrated financial monitoring reports covering both revenue and capital
expenditure, and these were further developed during 2011/12 to also incorporate commitment
accounting. The improvements made in the co-ordination of the preparation of the statement of accounts
continues to be maintained, and the new International Financial Reporting Standards were successfully
implemented last year.
Since 2011 the Council has continued to add to its list of Corporate Contracts. Formalising contracts for
goods and services it procures helps ensure the Council achieves best value. An updated contracts
register has also been added to the intranet for all to view.
Integrating e-invoicing into the finance system is the latest development of the e-procurement system.
This will be followed shortly by the introduction of “purchase cards” which will help reduce process costs
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