Reading Council's 2018/19 accounts finally published

At a council meeting on Thursday, officers revealed the accounts from two years ago have finally been signed off.

They were published on the RBC website on Friday and can be viewed here.

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The council’s beleaguered accounts have been published late for five years running at a cost of more than £1 million above expected fees, with the latest outlay yet to be confirmed.

The 2019/20 accounts are yet to be completed, having missed the deadline a year ago, while the latest accounts – 2020/21 – have now missed the deadline of September 31, 2021.

Back in April, hopeful RBC officers said the 2019/20 and 2020/21 accounts should be signed off by the end of 2021, paving the way for on-time 2021/22 accounts.

But this was then delayed until March 2022 and now the council is refraining from confirming any dates.

External auditors EY have asked the council to undertake a thorough quality assurance assessment of the draft 2019/20 accounts before it hands them over rather than focusing on getting them quickly published.

The outcome of this assessment, which has taken place over the last few days, will determine how quickly the draft 2018/19 accounts are published.

Darren Carter, the council’s director of finance, said: “One of the comments I have heard at previous meetings at the committee is the number of times we quote a date for you about when we will publish things and then we miss that date.

“I am not going to give a date that I can’t hit so, at the moment, my focus is on making sure a statement is thoroughly assured before it is handed over to EY.”

Are things improving?

While the delays have not improved, going from a 22-month delay in 2016/17 to 24-month delays in 2017/18 and 2018/19, the council’s EY says the time taken to audit the accounts has improved.

It took 33 months of work to complete the 2016/17 account, 24 months for the 2017/18 accounts and 11 months for the 2018/19 accounts.

Meanwhile qualifications – issues which mean the auditor is unable to give an unqualified, or clean, audit opinion but can sign off the accounts overall – have reduced significantly which EY’s Maria Grindley said is “great to see”.

Mr Carter said signing off the 2018/19 accounts “feels like a celebration” but both stressed the importance of maintaining the momentum.

What has gone wrong with the council’s accounts?

Accounts are a summary of an organisation’s financial activity over a 12-month period.

They should be accurate and transparent financial information which gives a true and fair view of the council’s economic performance and financial stability.

They are audited to make sure they meet this criteria and accounts should be published in September each year.

But due to the historic failures to keep good accounting standards and controls, the 2016/17 were published two years late and this has also delayed the accounts for subsequent years.

The 2016/17 accounts were finally signed off in July 2019, while the 2017/18 accounts were signed off in October 2020, an even longer delay.

The 2018/19 accounts were published on Friday, two years late once again.

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RBC’s accounts have had to be qualified due to lingering issues in some areas, creating further delays.

Some of the more recent delays are partly due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

How much has solving the accounting failures cost the council so far?

RBC’s 2017/18 accounts were signed off at the end of October 2020 and the council has now confirmed the final fee for auditing these accounts was £420,000 above the normal amount.

Added to the £600,000 extra EY charged to audit RBC’s 2016/17 accounts, the first that could not be signed off on time – this means the fiasco has already cost the council £1.02 million.

The 2018/19 accounts will also be above the normal fee but RBC has not yet confirmed the final costs.