Warwickshire council set to make formal complaint against its own auditors over delays

Warwickshire County Council is set to make a formal complaint against its own auditors Grant Thornton over delays to certifying the authority’s 2018-19 accounts.

Chair of the county’s audit and standards committee John Bridgeman, one of two independent members of the panel who are not councillors, put forward the suggestion having reiterated “discomfort” over the lack of progress.

While much of the work to check the council’s accounts is generally completed quite swiftly, the certification is the official confirmation that the records are accurate.

An annual audit letter from Grant Thornton published in August 2019 said the inability to formally sign off the 2018-19 accounts was “due to outstanding consideration of an objection to the 2017-18 accounts and review of the pension fund annual report for consistency with the financial statements”.

It also noted how two other objections from previous years had been closed around that time.

There is a national problem with auditing council accounts – a parliamentary committee found in June 2023 that only “12 per cent of local audit opinions were received in time” for the extended deadline local authorities had to publish 2021–22 accounts.

Its report noted that in November 2022, more than 630 accounts, some dating as far back as 2015–16, had yet to be signed off by auditors.

However, Mr Bridgeman was clearly unhappy after assurances provided by Avtar Sohal, a key audit partner at Grant Thornton, at July's meeting of the audit and standards committee had not resulted in progress.

When asked for an update, Mr Sohal said: “The auditor responsible, Grant Patterson (who is also listed as a key audit partner), has said he will get it done by the close of this year. It should be completed before Christmas.

“There is a pressure on him to do it because he is moving on to another role now, so we have to get it done.”

Mr Bridgeman thanked Mr Sohal but added: “We will make that a matter of record. To talk about the committee’s discomfort on the issue is perhaps an understatement of our underlying concern.

“Notwithstanding the promise that this matter might be resolved, I think that we should consider a more formal complaint than has been issued hitherto to Grant Thornton about the failure to deal with this matter.

“I understand a formal complaint has not been raised and I think that is the appropriate next step.”

He asked the committee whether they would be happy with that with no dissent forthcoming.

Mr Bridgeman later confirmed with Mr Sohal that the delay also meant that none of the subsequent accounts could be signed off, resulting in "repercussions recurring every year".

The issue relates back to a similar conversation during July's meeting.

At that time, Mr Sohal said: “I have spoken to Grant who is doing the work on it and he assures me it is 99 per cent complete, it is just getting finalised.

“I am hoping it will be done in a short period of time but I have said that to you many times. It is not in my hands at the moment but I keep putting the pressure on for it to get done.”

Mr Bridgeman queried at that point whether Mr Patterson had “any inkling of the discomfort he has caused in Warwickshire by this”.

Mr Sohal replied: “Yes. We have said to him to get it completed but I just think there are many plates he is spinning at the moment, he is just trying to get it done. Hopefully within the next couple of months he gets it finished and back to us.”

“Thank you. Well, we do look forward to that because it is really not good enough,” said Mr Bridgeman, to which Mr Sohal replied: “Yes.”