Recommendation 13

The local audit system is currently in an unacceptable crisis which requires significant and urgent attention. The most significant symptom of the crisis is an extensive backlog of incomplete audits and unaudited accounts, some of them many years out of date. This has led to a deleterious cycle in which delays create further delays, and which can only be resolved by a potentially painful reset to the whole system. (Paragraph 69) 36 Financial Reporting and Audit in Local Authorities