The Exercise by Local Government Auditors of their Functions 2009

The Chief Local Government Auditor, Mr John Buchanan, today published his report on the exercise by local government auditors of their functions. The report comments on a range of topics and issues raised by local government auditors in the course of their audits of local government bodies.

Background

In July 2005, the Department of the Environment made the Local Government (Northern Ireland) Order 2005, which brought a number of changes to ‘the principal Act’ the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972, Article 4(4) of the Order came into effect on 1 April 2006 and the Chief Local Government Auditor is now required to prepare and publish an annual report. This report is the third under the new arrangements.

Findings and Recommendations

The report provides background to local government and its management of resources. It also comments generally on aspects of the Financial Management Arrangements; on Corporate Governance Arrangements; on a new Data Matching Exercise being developed as part of a National Fraud Initiative for Northern Ireland, and highlights a range of issues that local government auditors have raised with councils in the course of the audit of the councils’ statement of accounts for the year to 31 March 2008.