Agenda item

A progress update from the Council's External Auditors, Forvis Mazars (report to follow).

To present to the Audit Committee, an update of the External Auditors, Forvis Mazars’, Audit Completion Report on the 2024/25 Statement of Accounts for consideration. The Council’s Statement of Accounts for 2024/25 was published on the Council’s website on 30^th June 2025, along with the Notice of Public Inspection.

The report provided an update on the progress of the audit work, carried out by Forvis Mazars, following the presentation of their previous report to the Audit Committee’s on 26^th November 2025. It was reported that their comments regarding the Council’s ‘Value for Money’ arrangements was unchanged from that presented in November. However, their report, attached at Appendix A, referred to the significant challenges, being faced by the Council, which have previously been reported to the Audit Committee. It was noted that the external auditors’ audit procedures were now substantially completed for the year ending 31^st March 2025.

Based on the work completed, by Forvis Mazars, to date, they anticipated issuing an unqualified opinion on the Council’s financial statements.

The external auditors had not made any changes to their initial risk assessment and planned audit approach that was communicated to the Audit Committee previously in their Audit Strategy Memorandum.

Forvis Mazars did not identify any significant deficiencies in internal control. The non-significant control observations that were identified were set out in Appendix A (Internal control conclusions). The auditors had not identified any adjusted or unadjusted misstatements above their reporting threshold.

In terms of their Audit Opinion, subject to the satisfactory conclusion of their

remaining audit work, it was anticipated that Forvis Mazars would issue an unqualified opinion, without modification, as set out in Appendix C of their report.

It was anticipated though that in terms of ‘Value for Money’ the external auditors anticipated having some weaknesses in arrangements to report in relation to the arrangements that the Council had in place to secure economy, efficiency and effectiveness in its use of resources.

The 2014 Act requires us to give an elector, or any representative of the elector, the opportunity to question Forvis Mazars about the accounting records of the Council and to consider any objection made to the accounts. The external auditors were able to confirm that no correspondence was received from an elector in the Borough of Oldham. 

Forvis Mazar had reviewed the Council’s Accounting policies and disclosure and concluded that they complied with the 2024/25 Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting, appropriately tailored to the Council’s circumstances. The Draft Accounts were received from the Council on 30^th June 2025 and were of a good quality, with the availability of working papers to support them.

The Director of Finance confirmed that the recommendations in the report provided by Forvis Mazars, would be incorporated into the Council’s budget setting process.

The Chair sought clarification as to when Forvis Mazars would finally sign off the Council’s 2024/25 Accounts. In reply the meeting was advised that the Accounts were expected to be finally completed by the end of January 2026.

A member of the Committee sought clarification on how Oldham Council compared with the other nine Greater Manchester Councils in terms of completing their 2024/25 externally audited accounts. The representative from Forvis Mazar reported that thus far only Rochdale Borough Council had completed their accounts for 2024/25.

Resolved:

1.    That the Audit Committee endorses the updated Audit Completion Report for 2024/25 and approves the recommendations contained therein.

2.    That the Chair of the Audit Committee be granted delegated authority to approve the finalised accounts for 2024/25, in agreement with the Director of Finance.