Slough Council accounts continue to be delayed

At Thursday’s audit and corporate governance committee meeting, Slough representatives vented their ‘disappointment’ and ‘frustration’ as little progress has been made on signing off the borough’s outstanding 2018/19 accounts.

External auditors Grant Thornton, an independent accounting firm, were meant to investigate and complete Slough Borough Council’s (SBC) statement of accounts and financial records for last June/July time.

Councillors said they have no assurance when the report will be done which councillor Waqas Sabah (Labour: Farnham), chair of the committee, called ‘reputationally damaging’ to the council.

Julie Masci, external auditor and engagement lead at Grant Thornton, gave a verbal update to members and claimed the stall was due to poor working papers, a number of council errors, emerging findings and poor communication between her team and the council’s finance team.

READ MORE: Slough Borough Council urged to give apology over Kashmir

Neil Wilcox, head of finance for the council, expressed frustration about the delay and argued his team has given all the information necessary to the auditors to produce the report and are waiting for clarity if more information is required.

Speaking at the meeting, Labour councillor Sabia Akram, deputy leader of the council, said: “Poor communication is not good enough, frankly.

“If I was to do that at my job in my private life, I would probably find somebody giving me my P45 and I would have an exit strategy.

“If I was to be asked by a member of public and held to account. I’m none the wiser.”

When asked what timeframe the report will be published, Julie Masci couldn’t give an exact date as a formal timetable of meetings between her team and the council’s finance team hasn’t been drafted, but will prioritise completing the audit before opening the 2019/20 accounts.

She also said her team are happy to keep the committee updated outside formal meetings of the audit progress.