Almost 90% of local government finance directors said the delays to 2020-21 audits were due to resourcing issues on the part of the auditor, according to a new survey by Public Sector Audit Appointments (PSAA).
The PSAA’s third client survey was published on 11 July and was conducted by the Local Government Association. The results reflect the current local audit situation and concerns that only 9% of 2020/21 audits were able to be completed by the 30 September publishing deadline.
When asked why the audit was not completed on time, 89% of finance directors attributed the delay to “resourcing issues on the part of the auditor”, followed by “resolving issues raised during the audit” (43%), “resourcing issues within the finance team” (17%), and “complexities in the organisation’s financial situation” (9%).
Respondents were able to pick more than one reason, and 110 finance directors answered the question.
The survey also found that when asked if the audit and its reported outcomes added value and delivered improvements, over half the FDs said they were either “not very useful” (34%) or “not at all useful” (21%). Only 39% said they were “very useful” or “fairly useful”.
Audit committee chairs were more supportive – with 73% saying the audit and its reported outcomes were “very useful” or “fairly useful”.
Tony Crawley, PSAA chief executive, said: “Finance directors and audit committee chairs have reiterated the concerns that we all share with the current position of local audit, with only 9% of audits completed by the publishing date and over 40% still in that position today.
“We will continue to raise bodies’ concerns with the key stakeholders as further discussions take place about how the local audit system can be improved and strengthened.”
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