The May audit deadline has become “disjointed” from the challenges and realities that the local government sector face, the Society of London Treasurers (SLT) has stressed.
The deadline for the publication of local authority draft accounts was 31 May; however only a quarter of London authorities have been able to publish their unaudited accounts on time, which according to the SLT reflects the national percentage.
In a statement, the SLT highlighted that they take the statutory deadline for accounts “very seriously”, but “treasurers must prioritise the quality of these accounts above that deadline”.
“Our belief is that the 31 May has become disjointed from the realities of the wider sector challenges at the current time,” the organisation said.
“Given so many authorities have made the decision to publish later reflects not just the 2022/23 position, but a continuation of the delays to opinions that now run back a number of years. Officer time dedicated to work through these delays has inevitably had a knock-on effect on this year’s position.”
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This comes as the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) decided to not temporarily extend the publication deadline to 30 June following a consultation in February 2023.
“The 31 May deadline in the current environment seems unnecessarily tight, [and] doesn’t seem to take into account the wider sector issues and risks creating additional audit work which is likely to further delay an opinion being given by 30 September,” the SLT continued.
The SLT stated that what is equally as challenging is the ability of auditors to complete their audits in the approved timeframes. This is driven by several issues including audit capacity, market conditions, as well as audit standards and regulation tightening.
“It is therefore the SLT’s view that a 31 May deadline will be increasingly difficult to meet until the wider issues are resolved. We therefore ask DLUHC to re-evaluate its position following the consultation for 2023/24,” the SLT added.
In late May, Rob Whiteman, CIPFA’s CEO, issued a statement which encouraged section 151 officers to take a “considered and transparent” approach towards meeting the publication deadline for unaudited financial statements.
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