ketteringbc4 Annual Audit & Inspection Letter 02-03

J-Jowett

Description

audit 2002/2003 Annual Audit & Inspection Letter Kettering Borough Council INSIDE THIS LETTER PAGE 2 • The purpose of this Letter • Objectives of audit and inspection PAGE 3 • Key messages PAGES 4 - 10 • Council performance • Financial aspects of corporate governance • Audit assurance work • Other work • Audit and inspection fees PAGE 11 • Future audit and inspection work • Status of our Annual Letter • Closing remarks PAGE 12 Appendix 1 • Audit and Inspection reports issued during 2002/2003 ketteringbc4 Annual Audit & Inspection Reference: Letter 02-03 - Final Authors: John Gregory, District Auditor Trevor Croote, Audit Manager Date: 30 January 2004 JG/TC/SJ audit 2002/2003 ANNUAL AUDIT & INSPECTION LETTER EXHIBIT 1 The three main elements of our audit objectives The purpose of this Letter This Letter summarises the conclusions and significant issues arising from our 2002/2003 audit and inspection programme and comments on other current issues. We have issued separate reports during the year having completed specific aspects of our programme. These reports are listed at Appendix 1 for information. Auditor’s responsibilities are summarised in the Audit Commission’s statement of key responsibilities of auditors. The responsibilities Accounts of Audit Commission inspectors are detailed in section 10 of the Local Government Act 1999. • Opinion What we say in this Letter should be viewed in ...

Informations

• Publié par: Endroi
• Nombre de lectures: 34
• Langue: English

Extrait

audit2002/2003 Annual Audit & Inspection Letter

Kettering Borough Council

I N S I D E T H I S L E T T E R

P A G E 2 •The purpose of this Letter •Objectives of audit and inspection

P A G E 3 •Key messages

P A G E S 4 - 1 0 •Council performance •Financial aspects of corporate governance •Audit assurance work •Other work •Audit and inspection fees

P A G E 1 1 •Future audit and inspection work •Status of our Annual Letter •Closing remarks

P A G E 1 2

Appendix 1 •Audit and Inspection reports issued during 2002/2003

Reference:

Authors:

Date:

ketteringbc4 Annual Audit & Inspection Letter 02-03 - Final

John Gregory, District Auditor Trevor Croote, Audit Manager

30 January 2004 JG/TC/SJ

Our main objective as your appointed auditor is to plan and carry out an audit that meets the requirements of the code of audit practice. We adopt a risk-based approach to planning our audit, and our audit work has focused on your significant financial and operational risks that are relevant to our audit responsibilities.

Central to our audit are your corporate governance arrangements. Our audit is then structured around the three elements of our responsibilities as set out in the code and shown in Exhibit 1.

Best Value Performance Plan

enable the council and the public to judge whether best value is being delivered

Objectives of audit and inspection

Performance management

•

•

•

Audit

Financial aspects of corporate governance

Annual Audit & Inspection Letter – Audit 2002/2003

•

•

enable the council to assess how well it is doing

identify failing services where remedial action may be necessary.

enable the government to assess how well its policies are being implemented

•

Opinion

We have issued separate reports during the year having completed specific aspects of our programme. These reports are listed at Appendix 1 for information.

The purpose of this Letter

ANNUAL AUDIT & INSPECTION LETTER

The three main elements of our audit objectives

This Letter summarises the conclusions and significant issues arising from our 2002/2003 audit and inspection programme and comments on other current issues.

EXHIBIT 1

audit 2002/2003

•

Accounts

Performance information

Legality of transactions

Auditor’s responsibilities are summarised in the Audit Commission’s statement of key responsibilities of auditors. The responsibilities of Audit Commission inspectors are detailed in section 10 of the Local Government Act 1999. What we say in this Letter should be viewed in the context of that more formal background.

Systems of internal financial control

•

•

•

Standards of financial conduct & the prevention and detection of fraud and corruption

Financial standing

Inspection

Inspection work is based around section 10 of the Local Government Act 1999, which requires us to carry out inspections and deliver reports that will:

•

•

Kettering Borough Council (Final) - Page2

Use of resources

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K e y m e s s a g e s

Comprehensive Performance Assessment

Along with all other Northamptonshire districts, the council has been subject to the district council Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) process during the year. The results were published on 22 January 2004.

Kettering Borough Council has been judged a ‘good’ council which is improving. It scored well (3 or 4) on 9 out of the 10 themes assessed. It has worked hard and effectively to improve and the general direction of travel is very encouraging.

Based on the CPA themes, the main area for further development is achievement in quality of service. The Council is already taking the CPA findings forward through its improvement planning process, building on its existing plans.

Financial aspects of corporate governance

Financial standing

Overall financial management continues to be sound. The council’s spending is in line with budget overall and revenue reserves remain healthy.

The council is currently revising its medium term financial forecasts for the period until 2007/2008 and has identified an indicative budget gap , prior to considering any increase in council tax, of approximately £0.3m in 2004/2005 rising to £1.3m by 2007/2008. Members will need to take account of this when setting the budget for 2004/2005 to establish a good base for a sustainable budget position over the next three to four years.

Income collection has been improving and sustaining this improvement remains a priority for the Council. Members should continue to monitor performance on a regular basis to ensure that the current trend is maintained.

Annual Audit & Inspection Letter – Audit 2002/2003

ANNUAL AUDIT & INSPECTION LETTER

Systems of internal financial control

We made a number of recommendations for strengthening existing arrangements, particularly in respect of bank account and financial system reconciliations.

We expect recent improvements to enable us to place greater reliance on the work of internal audit in future years.

Standards of financial conduct and prevention & detection of fraud and corruption

Each year we review the council’s arrangements for the prevention and detection of fraud and corruption. Our overall review found your arrangements to be sound and officers have already agreed actions to strengthen them further in a few areas.

Audit assurance work

Accounts

We gave an unqualified opinion on your 2002/2003 statement of accounts on 23 December 2003.

Best Value Performance Plan

The council’s 2003/2004 Best Value Performance Plan complied in all significant respects with statutory requirements. We gave an unqualified audit opinion on 3 December 2003 and made no formal recommendations to which the council need respond.

Performance information

We provided the required report to the Audit Commission by the deadline and, to the Council’s credit, there were no reservations on your performance indicators. The fact that there were no reservations is very unusual and reflects the emphasis you place on performance management.

Kettering Borough Council (Final) - Page3

Source CPA - The scores in this table reflect the risk of services failing, from A (very low risk of failure) to D (very high risk of failure). B represents a low risk of service failure and therefore low need for improvement

3

4

3

B

3

B

Future plans

Learning

3

3

3

4

3

3

Performance Management

Prioritisation

Ambition

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EXHIBIT 2 CPA SCORES - CORPORATE ASSESSMENT

EXHIBIT 3 CPA SCORES - DIAGNOSTIC ASSESSMENT

Along with all other Northamptonshire districts, the council has been subject to the district council CPA process during the year. The results were published on 22 January 2004.

Fair

Current performance

EXHIBIT 4 CPA SCORES - APPOINTED AUDITOR ASSESSMENT

ANNUAL AUDIT & INSPECTION LETTER

Overall score

Summary of theme scores

Each of the scored elements is shown below.

Source CPA - 1 (inadequate), 2 (adequate overall, but some weaknesses that need to be addressed), 3 (adequate), 4 (good)

Capacity to improve

−

−

Benefit Fraud Inspectorate’s (BFI) assessment of benefit services

decent homes standard

management of public space

an assessment of the council’s service delivery performance through two diagnostic assessments on:

accredited peer challenge to inform the council’s self-assessment

a corporate assessment of the council’s overall effectiveness in supporting services to deliver improvements

Council performance

Focus

Achievement in quality of service

Achievement of improvement

Investment

Source CPA - Scoring - 1 (weak), 2 (weaknesses outweigh strengths), 3 (strengths outweigh weaknesses), 4 (strong)

2

Summary of scores

Summary of scores

Kettering Borough Council (Final) - Page4

Management of public space

Decent Homes Standard

Source CPA - Poor, Fair, Fair to Good, Good, Excellent

The main elements of the assessment were:

•

•

•

a self-assessment completed by the council

EXHIBIT 5 CPA SCORES - BFI ASSESSMENT

Fair to Good

•

•

Kettering Borough Council has been judged a ‘good’ council which is improving. It scored well (3 or 4) on 9 out of the 10 themes assessed. It has worked hard and effectively to improve and the general direction of travel is very encouraging.

Annual Audit & Inspection Letter – Audit 2002/2003

appointed auditor assessments of performance on each of the main elements of the Code of Audit Practice

Comprehensive Performance Assessment

•

Based on the CPA themes, the main area for further development is achievement in quality of service. The Council is already taking the CPA findings forward through its improvement planning process, building on its existing plans.

Capacity

•

audited performance indicators, inspection reports and plan assessments.

audit 2002/2003

The CPA took place in September 2003 and the results therefore reflect the Council’s position at that time (and in the case of some elements of the process, before that time). Following on from CPA, the Council is continuing its efforts to improve, taking on board the findings from the CPA. Over the coming weeks we shall ensure that we work alongside the Council and with other regulators to determine a targeted audit and inspection programme which supports the council’s improvement work and is proportionate to its CPA categorisation.

Other inspections

We have not conducted any inspections other than CPA in the last year.

Performance audit work

Partnerships

We carried out an audit of partnership working during 2003. This audit looked at performance management within partnerships and focused on learning lessons about what makes a partnership successful in delivering on its aims and objectives.

We based our work on a sample of partnerships, reflecting the different types of partnership in which the council is engaged. Those chosen were:

•

•

•

•

Healthy Living Centre (now ‘Keep Kettering Healthy’)

Community Safety Partnership

Abandoned Vehicles

Consortium Audit.

Our draft report has been issued to officers and we aim to discuss our findings and finalise the report within the next few weeks.

Annual Audit & Inspection Letter – Audit 2002/2003

ANNUAL AUDIT & INSPECTION LETTER

Democratic renewal - the community role of members

The council introduced new political management arrangements in response to the government’s proposals for modernising local authorities’ decision making structures in March 2002. We undertook an overview of the council’s revised arrangements in 2002 and concluded that there was a need to continue to develop members’ understanding of their changing role. We agreed that we would carry out further work to help the council to embed its arrangements as part of this year’s audit and inspection programme.

The council’s constitution notes that a key role of councillors is to represent their communities and bring their views into the council’s decision making processes. Following initial discussion with officers we have worked with the council’s Neighbourhood Engagement Task and Finish Group to identify best practice techniques for working with communities. We worked with the group to facilitate a workshop for members to discuss these and to identify other ideas and areas for development. The results of this work will inform the development of a members’ toolkit on working with communities to be overseen by the Neighbourhood Engagement Task Group.

Performance management

We agreed to undertake a brief follow-up of the recommendations in our 2001/2002 best value report as part of this year’s audit and found that clear progress has been made in all areas. This is also reflected in the CPA scoring of 3 for performance management.

The council has further developed its corporate and service planning framework and has improved the alignment with budget cycles. It has also established sound performance monitoring systems, and performance ‘champions’ have been designated. Formalised mechanisms now exist for the dissemination of good practice within the council and the performance appraisal scheme has been re-launched. The council has also started a joint procurement initiative with Northampton Borough Council and Wellingborough.

Our findings and further recommendations are currently being discussed with officers and we aim to finalise our report in January 2004.

Kettering Borough Council (Final) - Page5

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Electronic government

As part of our audit plan for 2002/2004 we agreed to carry out a follow up review of the council’s progress against the recommendations in our initial review in 2001/2002. Our work is currently underway and we will report our findings in due course.

Financial aspects of corporate governance

Financial standing

Overall financial management continues to be sound. The council’s spending is in line with budget overall and revenue reserves remain healthy.

The council is currently revising its medium term financial forecasts for the period until 2007/2008 and has identified an indicative budget gap, prior to considering any increase in council tax, of approximately £0.3m in 2004/2005 rising to £1.3m by 2007/2008. Members will need to take account of this when setting the budget for 2004/2005 to establish a good base for a sustainable budget position over the next three to four years.

Income collection has been improving and sustaining this improvement remains a priority for the council. Members should continue to monitor performance on a regular basis to ensure that the current trend is maintained.

Overall arrangements

We reviewed the council’s overall arrangements for ensuring that its finances are soundly based including the corporate budget setting and budgetary control procedures. We also carried out a detailed audit of budgetary control arrangements within the housing services section.

We concluded that good progress has been made in recent years to improve financial management and control. Budgetary control arrangements at a corporate level are sound and there is a clear link between financial management and performance monitoring.

Annual Audit & Inspection Letter – Audit 2002/2003

ANNUAL AUDIT & INSPECTION LETTER

Examination of budgetary control within housing services showed that arrangements at an operational level are not as well developed. We found that budgetary control responsibilities are not fully devolved to budget holders. However, now that sound corporate arrangements are in place, officers are turning their attention to more detailed operational matters and are committed to addressing the remaining issues and ensuring that operational and financial responsibilities are fully aligned in future.

Revenue spending and balances

Net expenditure in 2002/2003 was £8.925m, which is higher than the original budget of £8.845m. This is consistent with expectations and included an increase in earmarked reserves of £0.31m.

The closing general fund reserve was £1.028m, which represents approximately 12% of net operating expenditure and is consistent with expectations and the council’s key principles.

The HRA generated a surplus of £0.147m compared to a budgeted surplus of £0.112m and the working balance has increased to £0.972m.

Financial planning

In February 2003 the council set its 2003/2004 budget with a view to maintaining a general fund balance of at least £1m. After taking account of new growth items and changes to the governments funding formula, the average council tax was increased by approximately 3% which was significantly lower than the national average (7.6% for shire districts).

The council is currently revising its medium term financial forecasts for the period until 2007/2008 and the executive committee considered initial budget details at its meeting on 14 January 2004.

Kettering Borough Council (Final) - Page6

audit 2002/2003

Prior to the consideration of council tax increases, the council has an indicative budget gap of approximately £0.3m in 2004/2005 rising to £1.3m by 2007/2008. Members will be considering the budget options further during February 2004 and will need to set a balanced budget for 2004/2005, taking into account the medium term financial forecast, through council tax increases, further budget reductions or a combination of the two. The existence of an up-to-date medium term plans means that the Council is in a good position to model possible options and maintain a sustainable position over the coming years.

Capital expenditure

The approved capital budget for 2002/2003 was £4.876m of which £3.876m was spent by 31 March 2003. This represents slippage of over 20% which is a deterioration over the previous year and was caused by key staff vacancies. Capital monitoring reports show a significant improvement in performance for the current year.

Prudential code of borrowing

The introduction of the prudential code from April 2004 will repeal the capital controls established by Part IV of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989. The aim of the prudential code is to provide a framework for local government capital finance to ensure that:

•

•

•

capital expenditure plans are affordable

all external borrowing and other long term loans are within prudent and sustainable levels

treasury management decisions are taken in accordance with professional good practice.

The prudential code is designed to improve transparency of decision making and to allocate responsibility and accountability. Un-affordable levels of borrowing would ultimately reduce the revenue available for services or require increases in council tax levels.

The Council is addressing the requirements of the new code as an integral part of its medium term financial strategy.

Annual Audit & Inspection Letter – Audit 2002/2003

ANNUAL AUDIT & INSPECTION LETTER

Collection of income and arrears levels

The 2002/2003 collection rate for council tax and non-domestic rates has improved but remains below the national average (Exhibit 6).

EXHIBIT 6

Proportion of debt collected

Kettering

District Ave

Council tax %

2002

95.3

97.4

Source ODPM Statistics

2003

96.2

97.6

NNDR %

2002

95.9

98.2

2003

96.7

98.5

The overall level of rent arrears reduced during 2002/2003 by 11% to £0.714m. This represents approximately 7.7% of gross rental income which remains higher than the national average (approximately 5.8% in 2001/2002). However, it is clear that income collection remains a priority for improvement by the council. Monitoring reports are regularly presented to members and the statistics reported in November show that the overall level of historic debt has fallen by over £1m from £4.852m at the beginning of the year to £3.814m at the end of September; a reduction of 21.4 percent. In addition, collection rates for council tax, business rates and housing rents indicate that consistent and sustained improvements are being achieved.

Members should continue to monitor income collection rates on a regular basis to ensure that the current trend is maintained.

Systems of internal financial control

We made a number of recommendations for strengthening existing arrangements, particularly in respect of bank account and financial system reconciliations.

We expect recent improvements to enable us to place greater reliance on the work of internal audit in future years.

Kettering Borough Council (Final) - Page7

audit 2002/2003

Overall arrangements

For the first time, local authorities were required to include in their 2002/2003 statement of accounts a statement on the system of internal financial controls. This statement sets out the framework within which financial control is managed and reviewed and the main components of the system, including the arrangements for internal audit. The statement reports on significant identified weaknesses and the actions undertaken to rectify these.

As external auditors we are required to identify any inconsistencies between the disclosures in the statement and information of which we are aware arising from our audit work.

During the year we conducted a review of all of the elements of the financial aspects of corporate governance. We produced a report of our findings which was discussed and agreed with officers. The main area of concern related to weaknesses in certain bank account and financial system reconciliations. Officers have responded positively to our report and have introduced monthly reconciliations for all bank accounts and feeder systems.

The weaknesses that existed in 2002/2003 and the action now taken to resolve them have been referred to in the council’s statement of internal financial controls. Our findings, together with officer’s responses describing the action taken, were also presented to members of the Monitoring and Audit Committee on 25 November 2003.

Internal audit

The council has been proactive in addressing weaknesses in its internal audit service and has worked with ConsortiumAudit to make the necessary improvements. This has inevitably taken time to achieve and there remained significant weaknesses in the council’s internal audit arrangements during the 2002/2003 financial year. However, our overall review of ConsortiumAudit identified a good level of service being provided to other authorities and we therefore expect that recent changes in personnel and revised roles and responsibilities at Kettering will enable us to place greater reliance on internal audit in future years. Furthermore, officers have stated that the coverage of internal audit work has increased substantially in the current year.

Annual Audit & Inspection Letter – Audit 2002/2003

ANNUAL AUDIT & INSPECTION LETTER

Project management

As part of the 2003/2004 audit plan we have undertaken a high-level risk assessment on a number of sample projects to assess the robustness of current project management arrangements and ensure adequate internal controls are in place. These projects have included:

•

•

•

the acquisition of a Customer Relations Management (CRM) system

implementation of the housing management system

implementation of the new email system.

The council is making progress with establishing a formal project management methodology and has adopted a locally tailored version of PRINCE2. It is assessing the effectiveness of this approach as part of the acquisition of the new housing information system.

We are aiming to complete our work and issue a draft report for discussion with officers in January 2004.

Standards of financial conduct & prevention and detection of fraud and corruption

Each year we review the council’s arrangements for the prevention and detection of fraud and corruption. Our overall review found your arrangements to be sound and officers have already agreed actions to strengthen them further in a few areas.

Overall arrangements

We updated our annual assessment of the council’s overall arrangements to maintain standards of conduct and prevent and detect fraud and corruption. We found most of the expected controls were in place at the time of our audit but identified some areas where existing arrangements could be strengthened further. Officers have responded positively to our recommendations.

Kettering Borough Council (Final) - Page8

audit 2002/2003

National Fraud Initiative

The National Fraud Initiative (NFI) is the Audit Commission’s data matching exercise. Its main aim is to help identify and reduce housing benefit fraud, occupational pension fraud, tenancy fraud and payroll fraud. The NFI is carried out every two years and data matches were provided to the council.

Our audit found that the work required to be done in respect of issues arising from the NFI had been completed satisfactorily by the council.

Legality of transactions

Our annual review of the council’s overall arrangements for ensuring the legality of transactions with financial consequences identified no areas of concern.

Overall arrangements

We reviewed the council’s overall arrangements for ensuring the legality of transactions with a financial consequence during our interim work. We found no issues to report on this topic.

Objections

We dismissed one objection to the 2001/2002 accounts during the year, and another was withdrawn by the objector.

There remains one outstanding objection which is being considered by your previous District Auditor, relating to the cattle market redevelopment. The objection affects financial years 1998/1999 and 1999/2000. The District Auditor dealing with this objection recently heard oral submissions by the objector and is aiming to finalise the case in January/ February 2004.

We will keep officers informed of the progress with this objection.

Audit assurance work

Accounts

We gave an unqualified opinion on your 2002/2003 statement of accounts on 23 December 2003.

Annual Audit & Inspection Letter – Audit 2002/2003

ANNUAL AUDIT & INSPECTION LETTER

Statement of accounts

We held a workshop for officers prior to the commencement of the audit to discuss key issues related to the preparation of this year’s final accounts. The workshop provided an opportunity for officers to discuss common issues arising from last year’s audits and changes in accounting and audit requirements. We also agreed formal joint working arrangements specifying working paper requirements, reporting arrangements and the timing of our work.

All issues arising from our audit were satisfactorily resolved and appropriate amendments made to the statement of accounts during the course of the audit. We gave an unqualified opinion on 23 December 2003 and will summarise the matters arising from our work in a report to officers within the next few weeks.

Whole of government accounts

The Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000 paved the way for the provision of public body accounts into a common format. This is commonly referred to as ‘Whole of Government Accounts’ (WGA). Arrangements are already under way for a set of audited and published Central Government Accounts to be prepared for the 2003/2004 financial year, with local authority accounts being brought into the process over the next few years. This will involve a tightening of the timescale for the production of statements of accounts by all local authorities.

It is anticipated that the requirements of the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2003 will also have a significant effect on the publication dates of audited statements. These require a progressive reduction in the date of publication from 31 December 2003 by one month each year until in the year 2006 when it is expected that the annual accounts will be published by 30 September.

All councils face significant challenges to establish procedures to meet the earlier closedown deadlines. We will continue to work with officers as part of our 2003/2004 audit to assist this process.

Kettering Borough Council (Final) - Page9

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Reporting to the council

There is a new auditing standard which applies to our audit of your accounts - Statement of Auditing Standard (SAS) 610 ‘Reporting to those charged with governance’. This requires us to report certain issues arising from our audit to members, in your case the Monitoring and Audit Committee, before we give our audit opinion on your financial statements.

As noted above, we reported weaknesses in internal control systems, together with the action taken by officers to address them, in our interim audit report which was presented to members of Monitoring and Audit Committee under SAS 610 on 25 November 2003. There were no other matters arising from our accounts work that required a further report under SAS 610.

Best Value Performance Plan audit

The council’s 2003/2004 Best Value Performance Plan complied in all significant respects with statutory requirements. We gave an unqualified audit opinion on 3 December 2003 and made no formal recommendations to which the council need respond.

Having completed our statutory audit of your 2003/2004 Best Value Performance Plan (BVPP) we provided our statutory audit report to you on 3 December 2003.

We are required each year to recommend whether, on the basis of our audit work, the Audit Commission should carry out a best value inspection of the council or whether the Secretary of State should give a direction. We recommended that neither of the above were required at Kettering.

Performance information

We provided the required report to the Audit Commission by the deadline and, to the Council’s credit, there were no reservations on your performance indicators. The fact that there were no reservations is very unusual and reflects the emphasis you place on performance management.

Annual Audit & Inspection Letter – Audit 2002/2003

ANNUAL AUDIT & INSPECTION LETTER

The council’s arrangements for the collection and reporting of performance information are strong and have shown sustained improvement in recent years. The data is underpinned by effective systems and good quality supporting records.

We used a risk based assessment of the council’s performance indicators to focus our work in this area. Analytical review of all indicators and specific testing of the high and medium risk indicators resulted in us having no reservations to report to the Audit Commission.

Other work

Grant claims

During the year we are required to examine and certify a number of grant claims and returns following certification instructions laid down and agreed between the Audit Commission and the relevant government departments. We did so within the deadlines imposed.

The council’s housing benefit claim, housing subsidy claim and NNDR return were accompanied by audit qualification letters. These are complex claims and it is not unusual for qualifications to arise. Furthermore, we do not expect the issues reported in our letters to have a material impact on the amounts claimed. Nevertheless, it is important for officers to address the matters included in our reports to ensure the council is receiving the full amounts to which it is entitled.

A summary of matters arising from our audit of the 2002/2003 claims will be reported to officers when complete.

Audit and inspection fees

The proposed fee for the 2002/2003 audit was set out in our plan agreed at the start of the audit. Our latest estimate of the actual fee for 2002/2003 indicates that it will be as we originally agreed.

Kettering Borough Council (Final) - Page10

audit 2002/2003

Future audit and inspection work

Our audit and inspection programme for 2003/2004 is included in the Audit & Inspection Plan 2002/2004 which was issued in May 2003.

We will discuss the timetable for planning the 2004/2005 audit and inspection programme, linked to your improvement priorities, with officers early in 2004. Our future programmes will be structured across the following themes that help to clarify the purpose of our work:

•

•

•

Assessment

Improvement

Assurance.

Status of our Annual Letter

Our Annual Letter is prepared in the context of the statement of responsibilities of auditors and audited bodies issued by the Audit Commission. The Letter is prepared by the relationship manger and appointed auditor and is addressed to members and officers. It is prepared for the sole use of the audited body, and no responsibility is taken by auditors to any member or officer in their individual capacity, or to any third party.

Annual Audit & Inspection Letter – Audit 2002/2003

ANNUAL AUDIT & INSPECTION LETTER

Closing remarks

This Letter has beendiscussed and agreed with chief officers and will be presented to members. A copy of the Letter will also be provided to all members.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation for the assistance and co-operation provided during the course of the work. Our aim is to deliver a high standard of audit and inspection which makes a positive and practical contribution which supports the council’s improvement agenda. We recognise the value of your co-operation and support.

John Gregory District Auditor

Mary Perry Relationship Manager

30 January 2004

Kettering Borough Council (Final) - Page11