3 March 2022Following on from the Smaller Authorities Audits and Appointments (SAAA) session at Practitioners’ Conference 2022, it is worth reminding clerks of the importance of the Joint Panel on Accountability and Governance Practitioners’ Guide for smaller authorities in England.
The document supports the preparation of statutory annual accounting and governance statements found in the Annual Governance and Accountability Return (AGAR), along with guidance notes included with the AGAR.
It is also worth noting there have been very few changes to 2021/22 AGAR – the main change is that the word ‘Part’ has been changed to ‘Form’ on the AGAR (as some thought that ‘Part’ indicated that more than one part was required).
Other minor changes are:
- Annual Internal Audit Report
Internal control objective L: “The authority publishes information on a free to access website/webpage up to date at the time of the internal audit in accordance with any relevant transparency code requirements” - Accounting statements
Statement 11 now has an N/A box as well as Yes and No
During the session, a number of questions were raised by delegates, which have been responded to and these are now available as FAQs.
