River Arun: section 3 – external auditor report and certificate 2022 to 2023
Updated 17 October 2023
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2023
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In respect of River Arun internal drainage board.
1. Respective responsibilities of the auditor and the authority
Our responsibility as auditors to complete a limited assurance review is set out by the National Audit Office (NAO). A limited assurance review is not a full statutory audit, it does not constitute an audit carried out in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK & Ireland) and hence it does not provide the same level of assurance that such an audit would. The UK government has determined that a lower level of assurance than that provided by a full statutory audit is appropriate for those local public bodies with the lowest levels of spending.
Under a limited assurance review, the auditor is responsible for reviewing sections 1 and 2 of the annual governance and accountability return in accordance with NAO auditor guidance note 02 (AGN 02) as issued by the NAO on behalf of the comptroller and auditor general. Note: the NAO issued guidance applicable to external auditors’ work on limited assurance reviews in auditor guidance note AGN/02. The AGN is available from the NAO website
This authority is responsible for ensuring that its financial management is adequate and effective and that it has a sound system of internal control. The authority prepares an annual governance and accountability return in accordance with proper practices which:
- summarises the accounting records for the year ended 31 March 2023 and published
2. External auditor’s limited assurance opinion 2022 to 2023
On the basis of our review of sections 1 and 2 of the annual governance and accountability return (AGAR) in our opinion the information in sections 1 and 2 of the AGAR is in accordance with proper practices and no other matters have come to our attention giving cause for concern that relevant legislation and regulatory requirements have not been met.
2.1 Other matters not affecting our opinion which we draw to the attention of the authority
The smaller authority has not addressed the ‘except for’ matters raised by the external auditor when qualifying the prior year annual return. The smaller authority has recognised this by responding ‘no’ to section 1 assertion 7 on the AGAR form 3. This is also consistent with the internal auditor’s response to internal control objective N. We have not seen any evidence that the smaller authority has published the explanation for the ‘no’ response to section 1, assertion 7.
In the completion of the annual internal audit detailed report, the internal auditor has drawn attention to a significant weakness in relation to the risk of misstated accounts, collection of debtors and the level of reserves. The smaller authority must ensure that action is taken to address this areas of weakness in a timely manner.
3. External auditor certificate 2022 to 2023
We certify that we have completed our review of sections 1 and 2 of the annual governance and accountability return, and discharged our responsibilities under the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 for the year ended 31 March 2023.
External Auditor Name: PKF LITTLEJOHN LLP
Signed and dated: 9 August 2023 (a PDF document of section 3 with the signature is available).