PUBLICATION OF UNAUDITED ANNUAL GOVERNANCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY RETURN, YEAR ENDING MARCH 2022
Ashington Town Council as a public body is responsible for its own finances. It is required to make arrangements for the proper administration of its financial affairs and to ensure that one of its officers has this responsibility. The officer whose job it is to oversee the finances of the Council is referred to as the Responsible Financial Officer (RFO).
The Council must work within a legal framework that is specified within the Accounts and Audit Regulations and it must ensure that its business is conducted in accordance with the law and proper standards.
Good governance, accountability and transparency are essential and a cornerstone to improving public services. The Council must ensure that public money is safeguarded, properly accounted for and used economically, efficiently and effectively.
PKF Littlejohn LLP are the Council’s appointed External Auditors; the Audit Commission continually monitor the performance of the external auditors assessing the quality of their work and ensuring they carry it out in compliance with their statutory obligations.
Ashington Town Council is also required to appoint an Internal Auditor who will monitor and review the arrangements in place to ensure the proper conduct and effectiveness of its financial affairs. The appointed Internal Auditor for 2021/22 was Mr Peter Basnett. Mrs Susan Saunders has been apointed for 2022/23.
The Council must have an adequate system of internal control and risk management. This review is an integral part of continually improving governance and accountability. The Council is required to publicly report the outcome of the review of its accounts and also to make its accounting statements and other documents available for public inspection.
The results of the External Audit are available to view on the website and on request, this is in the form of an Annual Return, different to the tax return that is completed by most organisations. The Annual Return is completed in June and usually returned in September, five months after the end of the financial year.
During this period, members of the public are invited to look at the council’s accounts, however, residents may at any time ask to see the council’s accounts, and questions relating to spending can always be put to the Clerk/RFO.
Ashington Town Council has received and approved the Annual Governance and Accountability Return (AGAR) (2021/22), and this will now be submitted to the external auditor. The unaudited AGAR has been published on the Council's website, under the AGAR section of the Finance pages. You can visit using the link below:
Any person interested has the right to inspect and make copies of the accounting records for the financial year to which the audit relates. The Notice of Public Rights and Publication of Unaudited Annual Governance and Accountability Return sets out these rights and how to exercise them.
NOTICE OF PUBLIC RIGHTS - UNAUDITED ACCOUNTS 2021/22
