News / Auditors like standard of accounts
AUDITORS have praised Shetland Islands Council for the exemplary way the 2011/12 accounts have been prepared.
This follows years of wrangling between the council and Audit Scotland over the grouping of Shetland Charitable Trust’s accounts.
The previous council leadership had always maintained that the assets of the £200 million trust should not be included in the council accounts as it was a separate organisation.
But earlier this summer, new finance boss James Gray moved to include the accounts as, in accountancy terms, the trust was seen as a subsidiary body of the council because councillors were sitting as trustees on its board
Speaking at Thursday’s audit and standard committee meeting, Mr Gray clarified that despite this, legally the trust was an independent body.
On being asked whether this could not have been done years ago, neither Mr Gray nor Carol Hislop of Audit Scotland were keen to answer.
Mr Gray said he had been in Shetland for only six months while Ms Hislop added that her attempts to convince the council that the accounts needed to be consolidated were not listened to.
She expressed her gratitude to council staff for the work they had put in to prepare the accounts ahead of the deadline and described it as a “major achievement”.
“Shetland Islands Council compares very favourably with other local authorities with regards to the standard of its accounts,” she added.
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