The Board of Councillors Oakham Town Council Victoria Hall 39 High Street Oakham LE15 6AH
14 July 2015
Dear Sirs
The purpose of this letter and the attached Standard Terms of Business is to set out the basis on which we are to act as and to clarify our respective responsibilities.
There is no contract between you and any partner or employee of Streets Chartered Accountants. Any advice to you or any other work done for you by any of our partners or employees is given or done by that person on behalf of Streets Chartered Accountants and not in his or her individual capacity. No such person assumes any personal responsibility to you for the advice or work.
We reserve the right to assign our rights and/or obligations under our agreement with you to any related entity of ours or to any business which is a successor to our current entity.
We are bound by the code of ethics of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and accept instructions to act for you on the basis that we will act in accordance with those ethical guidelines.
1 Your responsibilities as councillors
1.1 Our work will be conducted on the basis that you acknowledge and understand that you have responsibility: (a) To present fairly, the financial position of the council at the end of the financial year ended 31 March 2015 and its income and expenditure for that year, consistent with the council’s underlying financial records; (b) In preparing the financial information, to:
(i) select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently; (ii) make judgements and accounting estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
(c) For keeping adequate accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the council and for ensuring that the financial information complies with applicable accounting standards. You are also responsible for such internal control as you determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial information that is free from material misstatement whether due to fraud or error. (d) For safeguarding the assets of the council and hence for taking reasonable steps to ensure the council’s activities are conducted honestly for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
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1.2 You are responsible for ensuring that the council complies with laws and regulations applicable to its activities, and for establishing arrangements designed to prevent any non-compliance with laws and regulations and to detect any that occur.
1.3 You carry out all the day-to-day accounting work, including (where appropriate): (a) keeping the record of receipts and payments; (b) reconciling your records with the bank statement; (c) maintaining records of debtors and creditors; (d) carrying out or arranging for a valuation of the year-end stock levels; and (e) maintaining records of fixed assets.
1.4 You have agreed to make available to us, as and when required, all the council’s accounting records and related financial information, including minutes of Councillor meetings, necessary to carry out our work. You will make full disclosure to us of all relevant information.
1.5 You will approve and sign the Annual Return thereby acknowledging responsibility for the financial information presented.
1.6 If our Assurance Report is published on the council’s website or by other electronic means, you must inform us of the electronic publication and get our consent before it occurs and ensure that it is properly presented. We have the right to withhold consent to the electronic publication of our report if it is to be published in an inappropriate manner.
1.7 You must set up controls to prevent or detect quickly any changes to electronically published information. We are not responsible for reviewing these controls nor for keeping the information under review after it is first published. You are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of electronically published information, and we accept no responsibility for changes made to any information after it is first posted.
2 Our responsibilities in conducting an assurance review
2.1 You have asked us to report to you on a limited assurance basis on the financial results for the year ended 31 March 2015. Our review will be conducted with the objective of expressing our conclusion on the accuracy of the financial information provided in the Annual Return as set out below. Our work is in no way connected to the Internal or External Audit function as laid down within the public accountability framework.
2.2 We will conduct our review in accordance with International Standard on Review Engagements (ISRE) 2400 (Revised) ‘Engagements to Review Historical Financial Information’ and ICAEW Technical Release TECH 09/13 AAF ‘Assurance review engagements on historical financial information. ISRE 2400 (Revised) requires us to conclude whether anything has come to our attention that causes us to believe that the financial information, taken as a whole, is not prepared in all material respects in accordance with the applicable financial reporting framework. ISRE 2400 also requires us to comply with relevant ethical requirements.
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2.3 A review of financial information in accordance with ISRE 2400 (Revised) is a limited assurance engagement. We will perform procedures, primarily consisting of making enquiries of management and others within the entity, as appropriate, applying analytical procedures, and evaluating the evidence obtained. We will also perform additional procedures if we become aware of matters that cause us to believe the financial information as a whole may be materially misstated. These procedures are performed to enable us to express our conclusion on the financial information in accordance with ISRE 2400 (Revised). The procedures selected will depend on what we consider necessary applying our professional judgement, based on our understanding of the council and its environment, and our understanding of UK GAAP and its application in the context of your council.
2.4 Our conclusion on the financial information presented in the Annual Return for the year ended 31 March 2015 cannot be regarded as providing assurance on the adequacy of the council’s systems or on the incidence of fraud, non-compliance with laws and regulations or weaknesses in internal controls. Engaging us to perform this assurance engagement does not relieve the Councillors’ of their responsibilities in these respects.
2.5 Our work will not be an audit of the financial information in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK and Ireland). Consequently, it does not include a comprehensive assessment of the risks of material misstatement, a consideration of fraud or of laws and regulations, or the gaining of an understanding of, or the testing of, internal control in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK and Ireland). It also does not include the gathering of evidence in relation to all material areas of the financial information and in respect of all relevant assertions. Consequently, there is a higher risk than there would be in an audit that any material misinformation that exist in the financial information may not be revealed by the review, even though properly performed in accordance with ISRE 2400 (Revised).
2.6 Furthermore, as the Board of Councillors, you have a duty to prepare financial information that complies with applicable accounting standards. Where we identify that the financial information does not conform to UK GAAP or if the accounting policies adopted are not immediately apparent this will need to be disclosed.
2.7 We have a professional responsibility not to be associated with financial information which may be false or misleading. Therefore, although we are not required to search for such matters, should we become aware, for any reason, that the financial information may be misleading, we will discuss the matter with you with a view to agreeing appropriate adjustments and/or disclosures. In circumstances where adjustments and/or disclosures that we consider appropriate are not made or where we are not provided with appropriate information, and as a result we consider that the financial information is misleading, we will withdraw from the engagement. In these circumstances you agree that we have a right to invoice you for our time spent preparing and discussing the financial information with you as well as time spent on any other work that is not completed as part of our resignation.
2.8 As part of our normal procedures we may request you to provide written confirmation of any information or explanations given to us orally during the course of our work.
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Basis of the accountants’ report
2.9 Our conclusion, if unmodified, will be in the form: ‘Based on our review, nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that the financial information which forms the basis for the preparation of the Annual Return for the year ended 31 March 2015 has not been prepared:
• so as to give a true and fair view of the state of the council’s affairs as at 31 March 2015, and of its surplus for the year then ended; and
• in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice;
Our report will expressly disclaim any audit opinion on the financial information.
3 Limitation of liability
3.1 We will provide services as outlined in this letter with reasonable care and skill. However, to the fullest extent permitted by law, we will not be responsible for any losses, penalties, surcharges or interest arising as a result of you or others supplying incorrect or incomplete information, or failing to supply any appropriate information or arising as a result of you failing to act on our advice or responding promptly to communications from us.
3.2 We limit our liability to you on the following terms:
3.2.1 The limitation will apply to any causes of action that you may have against any of the entities listed at the commencement of the attached Standard Terms of Business ("Streets"), their directors, members and employees and their respective estates including liability for negligence and breach of trust but this limitation shall not extend to claims for deliberate fraud made directly against the fraudulent individual.
3.2.2 Streets' liability to you shall be limited to the amount of professional indemnity insurance (being not less than £30m) held by us at the time a claim is notified.
3.2.3 The limitation referred to in paragraph 3.2.2 above shall apply to the aggregate of all claims made by you or persons connected with you in connection with the matters to which our retainer relates.
3.2.4 The limitation in paragraph 3.2.2 above shall apply to the aggregate of all claims arising out of the matters to which our retainer relates giving this expression the widest possible meaning including any other matter which insurers treat for insurance purposes together with these matters as a single matter.
3.2.5 The limitation in paragraph 3.2.2 above shall be in respect of the aggregate of all claims against Streets, its directors, members and employees and their respective estates.
3.2.6 The limitation in paragraph 3.2.2 above shall be inclusive of interest from the date from which interest ought to run to the date on which Streets' insurers finally pay the claim notwithstanding that additional interest may be accrued by reason of Streets' insurers defending the claim on our behalf or being tardy in paying the claim.
3.2.7 The limitation in paragraph 3.2.2 above shall be inclusive of any costs awarded against Streets notwithstanding that costs may be accrued by reason of Streets' insurers defending the claim on our behalf.
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3.2.8 You acknowledge that it is reasonable to limit our liability in this way.
3.2.9 You agree that Streets' members, directors and employees and their estates may rely on this limitation.
3.3 Our work is not, unless there is a legal or regulatory requirement, to be made available to third parties without our written permission and we will accept no responsibility to third parties for any aspect of our professional services or work that is made available to them.
4 Agreement of terms
4.1 This engagement relates solely with your financial information and Annual Return for the year ending 31 March 2015.
4.3 The terms set out in this letter and our attached Standard Terms of Business (last revised 27 April 2015) shall take effect immediately. We invite you to sign the caption below and return one copy of this letter. Nevertheless the continuing provision of information by you and/or the receipt of your continued instructions will be treated as acceptance of the terms set out in this engagement letter and the attached Standard Terms of Business unless when first providing such information or instructions you clearly state in writing that these terms are not accepted.
4.4 You or we may agree to vary or terminate our authority to act on your behalf at any time without penalty, the only exception being that for payroll and bookkeeping services you are required to give us three months notice of any variation or termination. Notice of variation or termination must be given in writing.
4.5 This letter and the attached Standard Terms of Business will remain effective until or Assurance Report has been issued and our agreed fees have been settled in full.
Please sign and return the enclosed copy of this letter immediately.
If this letter and the attached Standard Terms of Business are not in accordance with your understanding of our terms of appointment please let us know.
Yours faithfully
Streets LLP
We confirm that we have read and understood the contents of this letter and the attached Standard Terms of Business dated 27 April 2015 and agree that they accurately reflect the services that we have instructed you to provide.
Signed ..................................... Dated ...............................
Cllr Alf Dewis - For and on behalf of Oakham Town Council
