Audit report flags up shortcomings at Babergh

Auditors have raised serious concerns about budget monitoring at a Suffolk council.
An audit report by financial adviser BDO covering 2013/14 found significant deficiencies in budget monitoring processes at Babergh District Council.
The document said that monitoring and reporting was undertaken on an informal basis and that no budget monitoring reports had been presented to members during the year.
It said: “The council’s income and expenditure during the year does not come under regular scrutiny by democratically elected members and members are not aware of the council’s financial position.”
The auditors recommended that in future, regular budget monitoring reports should be prepared by finance officers and presented to members.
A response by council management said: “It was always intended to reintroduce more formal reporting to members on a regular basis for 2014/15, as 2013/14 was just a temporary suspension.”
Elsewhere, the audit found less serious deficiencies in the council’s process of authorising journal entries by finance officers.
It said: “It was identified that there was no journal authorisation process in place in the 2013/14 year.”
Although the posting of journals was limited to a small number of staff within the finance team, it said that the lack of an approval process meant that “inappropriate journal entries” could be posted without prior authorisation.
The report called for the introduction of a risk-based authorisation process for journals over £250,000.
Another deficiency identified by BDO was the fact that the council had failed to complete a disclosure check to ensure compliance of financial statements against CIPFA code requirements.
It said this meant “the draft financial statements approved by the section 151 officer may not be compliant with the requirements of the code” and recommend that the checklist is completed in future.
In its response, the council has agreed to implement the recommendations of the auditors.
The audit was included in the council’s annual accounts, signed off by a joint audit committee of Babergh and Mid Suffolk Council this week.
The pair have integrated and merged some services and have reduced their combined staff levels by 10% over the past three years.