Gone are the days of long, obscure audit reports stretching to hundreds of pages. These days the auditor provides something short, punchy and almost understandable for us mere mortals.

This is the audit report for the year 2010/11 for Stockport Council, which the auditor published just a few days ago.

I’m going to pick out a few positive quotes – which I think are representative of the report as a whole, but please take a look for yourself.

Financial governance at the Council is good. The Executive clearly understands the significant and rapidly changing financial management challenges and risks facing the Council and is taking appropriate action to secure a stable financial position. The Executive is actively involved in business decisions leading the promotion and delivery of good financial management.The Executive provides constructive scrutiny and challenge on financial matters to ensure arrangements remain robust and fit-for-purpose. Members scrutinise and challenge financial performance effectively, holding officers to account.

the Council has proper arrangements in place to secure economy, efficiency and effectiveness in its use of resources.

The medium term financial plan is soundly based and has clear links to underlying efficiency plans. In 2010/11 the Council identified that significant savings were required and developed an effective strategy to deliver the savings.

The quality of the Council’s draft financial statements and the supporting working papers was good. This is a particular achievement given that the 2010/11 financial statements were the first to be produced under the IFRS requirements

My audit has not identified any weakness in internal control that might result in a material error in your financial statements.

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council 2012 Audit

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