Statement of Accounts
The Council produces an annual Statement of Accounts after the
end of each financial year. The accounts go through a rigorous and
independent external audit process before being approved by the
Audit
and Governance Committee.
Approval of the Statement of Accounts is the responsibility of
the full County Council.
The Statement of Accounts comprises Worcestershire County
Council’s accounts and the Worcestershire County Council Pension
Fund accounts.
The Council’s independently appointed External
Auditor is currently the Audit Commission.
Codes of Practice
The Statement of Accounts is prepared in accordance with the
Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting in the United
Kingdom and the Best Value Accounting Code of Practice both of
which are issued by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance
Accountancy.
Comparability
The descriptions and accounting methodology used are consistent
with best practice as applied across local government enabling
Worcestershire’s accounts to be compared with other similar
organisations with confidence.
Inspection of accounts, rights to question the auditor
and object to the accounts
Each year the Council will advertise in local newspapers a 20
working day period when any interested person may inspect the
accounts and supporting documents. The right to inspect
excludes documents that contain personal details about a member of
staff, documents not relevant to the accounts, or those documents
otherwise legally protected.
Once the accounts are advertised, they cannot be altered without
the consent of the External Auditor.
People who are eligible to vote in Worcestershire, or their
representative, also have the right to question the External
Auditor about the accounts for the year they are auditing and to
raise an objection if they think the Council has spent money
unlawfully or has failed to tell the public about something that
ought to have been reported.
The External Auditor will set a date after which any questions
and objections can be made. This ‘appointed date’ is
advertised together with the 20 day inspection period.
Objections to the External Auditor must be made in writing,
stating why the objection is raised.
Closedown Timetable
Each year, the closedown process broadly follows this outline
timetable.
April
The final transactions for the previous financial year are
completed and entered into the Council’s finance system
May
The Statement of Accounts is prepared
and the External Audit begins
June
Accounts approved by Audit and
Governance committee with verbal confirmation of the External
Auditor’s opinion on the accounts subject to any issues arising
from the public inspection period
July
Public Inspection Period (20 working
days) and ‘Appointed Date’
July/August
Final Audit Opinion received.
Statement of Accounts Published
This page was last reviewed 4 April 2012 at 17:23.
The page is next due for review 1 October 2013.