Stephen Sheen: clearing the local audit backlog
The government is now assessing feedback from a consultation on proposals to clear the backlog of local audits in England. Here, Stephen Sheen looks at some of the difficulties arising[…]
What's New?
March 18, 2024
March 15, 2024
March 14, 2024
The government is now assessing feedback from a consultation on proposals to clear the backlog of local audits in England. Here, Stephen Sheen looks at some of the difficulties arising[…]
A recent FRC report exposed serious faults in the audit process, but will a system reset help or hinder some of the more nuanced problems, asks Stephen Sheen, managing director[…]
The framework for reawakening a forgotten audit objective – giving a view about the ongoing reliability of an authority’s financial records – exists, and doing so would be beneficial to[…]
The regulator has reported revealing improvements in local government audit but key issues remain unresolved, writes Stephen Sheen. At the end of October, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) released its[…]
Local authority audit is changing but, Stephen Sheen argues, 100% private sector provision is unlikely to be “viable” while the underlying problem is difficulty recruiting for “soul destroying” work. At[…]
Coping with low morale, IFRS 16, standardised statements and an audit process he describes as a “mess” are the promised highlights of the coming year. It seems premature to look[…]
The Financial Reporting Council has delivered its verdict on council audits but, writes Stephen Sheen, it falls short of recognising the “unique nature of local authority accounts”. Although the Financial[…]
The Redmond Review has made a series of recommendations for improving local government audit. Stephen Sheen argues it leaves many questions unaswered. The report of the Redmond Review into the[…]
The regulator’s efforts to upgrade audit is “piling up wreckage” in local government, according to Stephen Sheen.
An effort to reduce the accounts preparation burden on local authorities in the midst of coping with the Covid-19 crisis was recently abandoned. Stephen Sheen looks at the implications. This[…]
Its the time of year when finance teams focus on their statement of accounts. Stephen Sheen argues that pushing back the deadline for audited accounts is not enough. There is[…]