Reporting template summary 2 col

The purpose of this Letter

This Annual Audit Letter summarises for Members the more important matters arising from our audit for 2001/02, and comments on other current issues. We are producing separate reports on completion of specific aspects of our work for discussion in detail with officers. These reports are listed at the end of this Letter for Members’ information.

In December 2001, the Government published a White Paper which announced the introduction of Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) across local authorities. The Audit Commission was given responsibility for developing the methodology. The first stage of CPA has resulted in all metropolitan councils, counties and unitaries being ranked (depending on measures of performance and ability to improve) into one of five categories (excellent, good, fair, weak and poor). The results were published nationally on 12 December 2002.

This Annual Audit Letter summarises the results of the 2001/02 audit. It takes into account the outcome of the CPA process, but retains as its main focus our statutory responsibilities as external auditor to the Council.

The Audit Commission has circulated to all audited bodies a statement that summarises the key responsibilities of auditors. Our audit has been conducted in accordance with the principles set out in that statement. What we say about the results of our audit should be viewed in the context of that more formal background.

Audit objectives

Our Code of Audit Practice requires us to design a programme of work to address the significant operational and financial risks you face that impact upon our responsibilities. Our work focuses on whether you have adequate arrangements for the following:

Performance management

· Securing economy, efficiency and effectiveness in the use of your resources.

· Producing and publishing a Best Value Performance Plan (BVPP).

· Producing performance information.

Financial aspects of corporate governance

· Securing the legality of financial transactions.

· Ensuring your financial standing is soundly based.

· Satisfying yourselves that systems of internal financial control are both adequate and effective.

· Ensuring proper standards of financial conduct, and the prevention and detection of fraud and corruption.

Accounts

· Presenting fairly the Council’s financial position.

This programme of work is summarised in Exhibit 1.

Exhibit 1

The three main elements of audit objectives

Our audit has addressed the requirements of the Code of Audit Practice and we have worked with the Council to maximise the benefits of the integrated audit approach. We have reviewed your arrangements for dealing with risks and we have undertaken additional detailed work in selected areas of higher audit risk.

We have also liaised with Audit Commission and other Government Inspectors to minimise duplication where our roles and responsibilities overlap.

The Annual Audit Letter is an important means by which the public might learn about the Council’s stewardship of public funds. The Council is required to:

· publish the Annual Audit Letter as soon as reasonably practicable following its receipt

· keep copies of the Letter available for purchase by any person on payment of a reasonable sum.

Background to the audit

There have been some significant challenges for the Council over the past year. In particular, these have involved:

· further developing performance management arrangements

· re-organising the management structure to ensure there are the capacity and skills to deliver the modernising agenda

· managing the Council’s response to continuing financial pressures, especially in Social Services

· tackling underperformance in the Highways and Planning services.

In addition, the Government has introduced its CPA and the Council has had to respond by carrying out a self-assessment and hosting the Corporate Assessment inspection team.

In accordance with our responsibilities under the Code of Audit Practice, we have had regard to all of these issues in the course of our audit.

KEY MESSAGES

Overall conclusion

The CPA process has resulted in the Council being categorised as a ‘Fair’ authority. This is a creditable achievement, particularly when considered against the background outlined above and the Council’s position 18 months ago.

The judgement was arrived at by assessing:

· how the Council is run

· how its services perform.

Whilst core service performance compares favourably with neighbouring unitary councils and services are improving, the Council has more weaknesses than strengths in its corporate governance arrangements.

The Council recognises that continued action is needed to ensure that its current record of service achievement can be sustained and enhanced over the longer-term, especially through the present period of significant change at senior management level.

The political will and staff commitment to succeed is acknowledged. The Council’s improvement priorities are understandably focused on improving its governance arrangements. Provided these are delivered and improvements continue the Council has good prospects of moving quickly to a ‘Good’ overall performance.

The key messages for Members are set out below.

Financial position

The Council continues to face financial pressures, particularly associated with social services and waste management, and exacerbated by a relatively unfavourable result in the recently announced Local Government Settlement for 2003/04.

A medium-term financial strategy is being developed, to help in balancing annual budgets while bringing resources and priorities into closer alignment. This needs to be completed as a priority.

Performance management

There has been continued progress with the design and build stage of the Council’s performance management framework. For this investment to be realised, Directors’ Group must ensure that the framework is applied consistently across the organisation. It will then be necessary to ensure that monitoring processes are working effectively and that Members are fully engaged in the process. Once the framework is embedded in the culture of the organisation it should be a key factor in driving service improvement.

Performance information

We have encountered significant problems with the reliability of the data supporting Best Value Performance Indicators (BVPIs). We found that, of the 111 required indicators, five were omitted and 23 were either inaccurate and likely to mislead or of uncertain accuracy.

As a result, our audit opinion on the BVPP is qualified and we have also made a statutory recommendation to which the Council is required to respond within 30 working days of its issue date.

Urgent action is needed to ensure that performance data is reliable, and that calculations are accurate and in accordance with published definitions.

E-government

The corporate arrangements for delivering and resourcing the Council’s strategy for e-government are not yet in place. However, the Council has recognised that prompt and decisive action is needed if the Government’s national targets are to be met and has now set-out a clear picture of what it is seeking to achieve. This is to be followed by detailed project management arrangements over the next six months.

Procurement

Procurement is a key part of the Government’s modernisation agenda and, recognising this, the Council has developed a Procurement Strategy. Priority now needs to be given to ensuring appropriate arrangements are in place to drive the process corporately and that the relevant skills are available across the organisation to deliver the strategy effectively.

Risk management

The Council is progressing its approach to Risk Management (RM) and now needs to give priority to completing the framework and building RM into its planning and review processes.

Internal Audit

Our review identified a need for action to ensure that Internal Audit is working to a risk-based annual Audit Plan agreed by Directors and Members, and that their staffing and skill levels are appropriate for delivering that plan. We recognise that action is now being taken to address these issues.

Performance management

Comprehensive Performance Assessment and Best Value

The Council has been categorised as a ‘Fair’ authority through the CPA process. The Best BVPP for 2002/03 is a much improved document compared with previous years but a significant number of the published performance indicators were inaccurate or unsupported and we have therefore qualified our opinion on the BVPP.

The CPA process results in a score for performance across service areas together with a score for how the Council is run. The combination of the two assessments results in authorities being placed in one of five categories (excellent, good, fair, weak and poor).

The judgements in service areas are a combination of assessments from external agencies, including Ofsted, SSI, BFI and government offices, results from best value inspections, auditor assessments and performance indicators. The judgement on ‘how the Council is run’ has been assessed by an independent review team against criteria in nine specific areas.

The results were published nationally on 12 December 2002 and the Council was ranked as Fair. Exhibit 2 shows its performance in individual service areas, together with its overall scores for how services perform and how the Council is run. Scores are on a one to four basis with one being low and four being high.

Exhibit 2

Service	Score (1 low, 4 high)
Education	3
Social care – children	3
Social care – adults	2
Environment	3
Housing	2
Libraries and leisure	3
Benefits	2
Use of resources	3
How services perform	3
How the Council is run	2

Following from the CPA process, the Council is already well advanced with its improvement planning and a meeting has been held between regulators and the Council to consider priorities.

The Council’s ranking will influence both the amount of regulation work that is undertaken in future years and the range of freedoms and flexibilities that will be granted from central government. In addition, it is envisaged that priorities identified as part of the improvement planning will feed into the Council’s BVPP for 2003/04 and will influence the audit and inspection programme for future years.

The Council’s latest BVPP is a considerable improvement on the previous years’ documents complies in most respects with statutory requirements and was published within the statutory deadline. The document should be useful both to internal managers and staff and to external stakeholders in facilitating a wider understanding of the Council and the issues it faces.

The exception to full compliance concerns the reliability of the 2001/02 BVPIs.

Our audit has involved the validation of 15 indicators prescribed by the Audit Commission because of their significance in the CPA process, and of others judged locally to be high risk, along with the review of information supporting those indicators judged to be lower risk.

We found that five of the required 111 indicators had been omitted. We have expressed reservations on 15 of the 99 non-Fire Service indicators because definitions have not been complied with or evidence to support the indicators is inadequate. For ten of these, the Council has been unable to comply fully because their information systems do not provide the necessary data. A further 17 indicators have in our view been significantly misstated in the BVPP, either because they were published as estimates that were inaccurate or as actuals that have subsequently been amended.

The impact of these inaccuracies varies as between understating and overstating performance or costs, and in the degree to which they misrepresent the Council’s performance. We have concluded that there was no deliberate intention to mislead, but that for 15 indicators the accuracy of the reported position is uncertain and for 8 the published figures are incorrect and likely to mislead a reader of the BVPP.

The indicators and our reservations and amendments have been submitted to the Audit Commission. We have provided officers with a short report which makes recommendations for minor improvements to the BVPP and sets out our judgements on those indicators we found to be inaccurate.

Because of the number of inaccuracies, we have had to qualify our opinion on the BVPP. We have also considered this to be sufficiently important to merit a statutory recommendation in our BVPP opinion and certificate, issued on 20 December 2002. The Council must consider this and formally respond to the recommendation within 30 working days of the issue date.

A significant improvement in the accuracy and evidencing of performance data is required if the Council is to be successful in accessing rewards and securing freedoms through the CPA and local PSA processes, both of which rely heavily upon these measures.

The Council has maintained its programme of Best Value reviews, which is now being revised following the removal of the requirement to review all functions over a five-year period. The new programme will be based on corporate priorities identified through strategic planning, performance monitoring, consultation and CPA. This is a sound approach, but the Council needs to be satisfied that there is sufficient flexibility to enable all of its functions to be covered.

Recommendation

Ensure that priority is given to improving the accuracy and reliability of performance information.

Use of resources

The Council has continued to develop its overall performance management arrangements, but the framework is not yet fully in place. Our reviews of specific services have identified scope for improvement in some areas.

Performance management arrangements

The Council has continued to develop its performance management arrangements. The main achievements this year include:

· the Community Strategy ‘Island Futures’ has been adopted

· a Corporate Plan has been prepared and consulted upon

· service planning processes are now established across the organisation

· the Directors’ Group is now regularly monitoring performance and identifying areas for attention

· a Member led ‘performance monitoring task group’ has helped Members to develop their monitoring role.

There remains much to be done to complete the arrangements. This was confirmed by the corporate assessment element of CPA, which pointed in particular to the need for:

· maintaining the momentum of development through the forthcoming period of senior management changes

· ensuring service plans are linked explicitly to the corporate plan

· better integrating corporate, service and financial planning

· completing the implementation of corporate performance management

· enhancing risk management, project management and procurement

· reviewing and developing the Council’s approach to diversity.

These developments are fundamental to the successful management of the Council’s business and to the delivery of service improvements, and they have informed the identification of improvement priorities that forms the final stage of the CPA process.

In addition to contributing to the CPA process, our work this year has focused on supporting the development of the Corporate Plan and providing workshops to help Members further develop their performance management roles.

Recommendation

Complete the implementation of a comprehensive performance management framework.

Service inspections

The service inspections completed by outside agencies this year are shown in Exhibit 3.

Exhibit 3

Results of inspections 2001/02

Service	Performance	Prospects
Education Client Services (February 2002)	Good	Excellent
Social Services for Older People (June 2002)	Good	Promising
Wight Leisure (October 2002)	Good	Promising
Homelessness and Housing Advice (August 2002)	Fair	Promising
Highways and Transportation re-inspection (October 2002)	Fair	Promising

This is a creditable set of results, and there are many positive messages from the reports, particularly about the progress that has been made in developing corporate arrangements.

Most encouraging is the ‘prospects for improvement’ assessment, which is a good indication that best value reviews are now capable of driving improvement if their conclusions are implemented.

Nevertheless, there are some recurring themes, which need to be addressed in order to further strengthen the Council’s arrangements, including:

· completing the performance management framework

· ensuring that the multiplicity of plans is developed into a prioritised list of actions, for the short and medium-terms

· maintaining clarity of aims and objectives, while translating them into front line service improvements.

We have considered the Council’s progress in addressing issues raised in the 11 inspections carried out over the last two years. This shows that 94 per cent of the recommendations arising from these inspections have been implemented or are in progress.

Risk management

We have followed-up our 2000/01 report on risk management. This shows there has been some significant progress, with a strategic risk profile completed and a response to this being developed.

Work is now starting on putting in place a framework for the systematic identification, assessment and control of significant risks. The risk management approach will then need to be embedded into the Council’s processes, including service planning and Best Value reviews.

Recommendation

Expedite the development of risk management and its integration into service planning.

‘Use of resources’ reviews

We have carried out a number of specific reviews during the year and the key findings from these are summarised in Exhibit 4.

Exhibit 4

Key issues arising from ‘use of resources’ reviews

Service reviewed/position

Key findings/recommendations for further action

Partnership management (2000/01)

Our report has been discussed with officers and an Action Plan has been agreed.

It is vital that the Council ensures it has effective monitoring and review procedures in place to assess the performance of its partnerships.

In agreement with officers, we selected the Isle of Wight Partnership (now the Isle of Wight Economic Partnership) and the Tourism Partnership for detailed review. The project work was carried out during December 2001 and January 2002. Our report sets out a number of recommendations for improving the governance arrangements for these partnerships, including the need for improved performance management. Many of our recommendations may be of relevance to other Council partnerships.

Exhibit 4 cont’d

Key issues arising from ‘use of resources’ reviews

Service reviewed/position

Key findings/recommendations for further action

E-Government

Our report has been discussed with officers and an Action Plan has been agreed.

There is a need to create a clear vision of how e-government will improve services, and to establish the project management arrangements to deliver the vision.

We looked at the Council’s progress in developing a strategy for implementing their IEG Statement and concluded that there is a need to increase Member, senior management and service manager engagement in electronic service delivery and to develop the strategy into a programme of projects capable of achieving the required targets. The Council has now produced its second IEG Statement, which gives much greater clarity to the links with corporate priorities and the specific projects required to deliver the strategy. This needs to be developed into project plans, with responsibility assigned, and to have the full backing of Members, directors and service managers. These will then need to be incorporated into business agendas at all levels. We understand that this work is to be undertaken over the next three months. Beyond that, there remains a significant funding gap that will need to be addressed.

Local PSA

This work is still in progress.

We carried out a review of the Council’s local PSA proposal earlier in the year, in order to assess how it fits with the Council’s priorities. We are now looking at the arrangements in place to support delivery of the agreed targets.

NHS flexibilities

Our report has been discussed with officers and an Action Plan has been agreed.

We have suggested some improvements that could be made to the partnership agreement to formalise arrangements.

We reviewed the arrangements agreed between Social Services and the health bodies on the Island for developing joint services and pooling associated budgets. The review included a survey of the relevant senior managers of the agencies involved. This has shown that the Council’s processes so far have generally followed best practice principles. We have made a small number of recommendations, largely associated with clarifying and formalising aspects of the governance arrangements.

Procurement

Our report has been discussed with officers and an Action Plan has been agreed.

The Council needs to ensure that it has appropriate arrangements in place and skills available to deliver effective procurement.

The Council has already recognised the importance of procurement has recently adopted a strategy and is taking steps to enhance the associated arrangements. We have reviewed current arrangements and processes, comparing them with good practice elsewhere, and have identified priorities for action. These include:

· rolling-out the Procurement Strategy

· establishing a database of procurement activity

· ensuring there are effective corporate arrangements, including a Procurement Group of appropriate managers

· developing procurement and project management skills across the organisation.

Exhibit 4 cont’d

Key issues arising from ‘use of resources’ reviews

Service reviewed/position	Key findings/recommendations for further action
Follow-up of previous projects
Asset management (1999/2000)	The Council has continued to develop its approach to asset management through a more strategic approach and greater consultation with users. The priorities now are to: · ensure that service plans reflect the property strategy · continue to increase the proportion of planned maintenance and to reduce the maintenance backlog currently standing at about £18m · develop local performance indicators to assist with benchmarking.
School budgets (2000/01)	In our 2000/01, report we made a number of recommendations associated with financial advice to schools, the monitoring of their budgets and responding to high levels of school surpluses. Monitoring of schools surpluses has been enhanced and Inspectors are formally involved with all aspects of school management through the school cluster meetings and implementation of the self-evaluation process. There remains scope for closer working between the LEA and Internal Audit’, to maximise the benefits from audit visits to schools.

Financial aspects of corporate governance

Arrangements

We have assessed the Council’s corporate governance arrangements as being adequate for their purpose. The main areas of weakness are around Internal Audit and risk management.

We have extended our work on each of the Code of Audit Practice Corporate Governance areas this year in order to arrive at auditor judgements, as required by the Audit Commission to support CPA. This work has been completed and we have agreed our assessments, which feed into the CPA process, with your officers.

The Code of Audit Practice requirement is that we judge whether the Council’s arrangements are adequate. We have concluded that arrangements are adequate, with few weaknesses. We have summarised our conclusions in a report, which sets out recommendations based upon the action required in each area to move the Council up to the ‘better than adequate’ category. Specific issues for Members to be aware of are covered in the following sections.

Financial standing

The Council continues to face financial pressures, particularly in Social Services and waste management.

We have reviewed the budget-setting processes, including those for bridging budget gaps and are satisfied they are adequate. The Council has adopted good practices in making three-year projections of financial needs and resources, and in providing detailed reports to the Executive that identify efficiency savings, service reductions and developments, and pressure points.

Budgets are consistently met to within a small percentage variance. This was achieved in 2001/02 with the help of proactive debt management alongside continuing low interest rates and slippage in capital schemes. A year-end general balance of £1.8m was budgeted, below the two per cent of net expenditure that has previously been regarded as prudent. In the event, the balance at 31 March 2002 was £2.5m, which is at the two per cent level.

In order to address new developments and continuing budget pressure in 2002/03, a 13.25 per cent increase in council tax was agreed.

Financial pressures are likely to increase in 2003/04 in light of the Government’s recently announced revenue support grant settlement. The changes in the grant distribution formula will have a relatively unfavourable impact, which the Council calculates to be equivalent to a loss in the first year of around £5m compared with the national average.

The Council is preparing a Medium-Term Financial Strategy, which should bring about closer alignment of corporate priorities and resources. It will also provide the opportunity to undertake a risk assessment of the variability of income and expenditure, and to ensure reserves are set at an appropriate level and adequate contingency reserves maintained. We will review the strategy and provide feedback to the Director of Finance and Information and County Treasurer in due course.

The Council’s capital programme is based on needs as determined through an internal bidding process. It is tailored to what is affordable and the financing is agreed in advance. The priorities set out in the Asset Management Plan (AMP) are one consideration when capital bids are being prioritised. However, if the AMP and Capital Strategy are to be effective management documents, the links need to be clearer and more consistent.

Practice on reporting financial information to Members has been mixed. Arrangements have now been made for revenue and capital monitoring reports to be provided to select committees at least every two months alongside performance reports.

Recommendations

Complete the development of a medium-term financial strategy.

Ensure there are clear links between the capital programme and the priorities set-out in the AMP.

Systems of internal financial control

Our work did not identify any material issues relating to specific systems. However, we are concerned about the effectiveness of Internal Audit.

For purposes of obtaining assurance on the Council’s internal controls we place reliance as far as possible upon the work of Internal Audit.

We have reviewed how they plan, control, evidence and report their work and concluded that they comply with CIPFA standards.

In 2001/02, the section was under-resourced in terms of both numbers and skills. This resulted in significant slippage in the work programme, with less than 66 per cent delivered and a 35 per cent overrun on planned times. In addition, productivity was down at 43 per cent compared with a planned level of 51 per cent.

Action is now being taken to re-structure the audit section in order to resolve these problems. This will be too late to ensure full delivery of the 2002/03 Audit Plan.

CIPFA’s Code of Practice for Internal Audit says that the Internal Audit function should report, and be accountable, to an audit committee or equivalent. The Council has had no formal process for reporting to Members on the audit plan or the results of audit work. This is now being addressed through a panel of the Resources Select Committee.

In addition, although there is a formal system for ensuring that recommendations are implemented, this has not been rigorously adhered to and there is no process for senior management to review the results of this work.

Recommendations

Ensure that appropriate resources and skills are available to deliver the internal Audit Plan.

Introduce procedures for approval of the Audit Plan and monitoring of progress and results at Directors’ Group and Member level.

Standards of conduct, fraud and corruption

Arrangements for maintaining standards of conduct and for preventing and detecting fraud and corruption appear adequate.

We have reviewed the Council’s overall arrangements for prevention and detection of fraud and corruption. Whilst arrangements are adequate, procedures could be enhanced by introducing a formal register of irregularities and by ensuring that there is a proactive programme of anti-fraud and corruption audit work undertaken annually.

The Council needs to ensure that Members and Staff are familiar with the key corporate governance documents, and that these and details of the ethical framework are made available to the public and partners. There also need to be formal arrangements for Members to monitor and test compliance with codes of conduct and the wider ethical framework.

Recommendation

Establish arrangements for monitoring and testing the operation of the new ethical framework.

Legality of financial transactions

We are satisfied that the Council has adequate arrangements for ensuring the legality of transactions with financial consequences.

During the year we have held discussions with officers and reviewed reports as issues with a legal implication have arisen, and we have reviewed the Council’s overall arrangements. We have concluded that arrangements are adequate.

There is scope to further enhance arrangements by adopting more formal procedures for implementing new legislation and monitoring compliance, and by raising the profile of the Section 151 officer through making the associated duties explicit within the Constitution.

The Council is proposing to externalise Wight Leisure to a ‘not for profit distributing organisation’. We are tracking the processes being followed in pursuing this option, in order to obtain assurance that decisions taken are in the Council’s best interests and that due regard is given to the associated legal considerations.

In December 2000, an elector argued that the Council had not obtained ‘best consideration’ when leasing its residential homes to Islecare97. We reached the view, not shared by Council officers, that the actions taken by the Council were unlawful but, because the same position could have been reached by lawful means, we decided to take no formal action. This matter was finalised in June this year when we issued a separate Audit Letter and closed the audits of the accounts for 1999/2000 and 2000/01.

There have been no formal challenges to items in the Council’s 2001/02 accounts but we have had a number of informal contacts from electors covering:

· the Isle of Wight Music Festival

· proposed lease of Inver House

· St Mary’s roundabout planning agreements

· Beach Cleaning contract

· expenditure on un-adopted roads

· sites for travellers

· impact of a pitch and putt course on a public right of way.

The first three of these remain live issues for us at this stage.

In relation to the Music Festival, the Council has suffered a loss of £0.38m through underwriting the event earlier this year. The Council had agreed a subsidy of £20,000 and estimated the maximum additional liability as £109,000, to be met from Wight Leisure reserves. However, this was clearly too optimistic and emphasises the need for realistic risk assessment as referred to earlier in the Letter. An internal enquiry is now being carried-out to establish whether there were deficiencies in the Council’s processes or controls.

Accounts

We issued an unqualified audit opinion on 13 December.

Our work on final accounts this year covered:

· testing of the key controls within the general ledger systems

· a review of procedures for preparing and controlling the budget

· a review of close down procedures

· review and testing of the financial statements.

Members approved the Council’s Financial Statements on 11 September and we issued an unqualified audit opinion on 13 December.

We will report our detailed findings to officers shortly. There are no issues we wish to draw to the attention of Members.

We are also considering the Council’s accounts closedown process in order to identify scope for shortening the time scale in future years. This is necessary to meet the Government’s proposal to incorporate local authority accounts into the ‘Whole of Government Accounts’, beginning with a dry run in 2004/05.

Future audit work

We are currently considering the significant operational and financial risks facing the Council that will need to be addressed in next year’s audit.

To facilitate the combining of audit and inspection, the Audit Commission is aligning our financial and operational year with that of the Inspectorate. This means that:

· our 2002/03 Audit Plan will cover the five months from 1 November 2002 to 31 March 2003

· for 2003/04 there will be an integrated audit and inspection plan covering the 12 months from 1 April 2003, driven by CPA and the Council’s Improvement Plan

· the above will be the first year of a three-year plan, with the two subsequent years in outline.

Status of our Annual Audit Letter to the Council

Our Annual Audit Letter is prepared in the context of the Statement of Responsibilities of Auditors and Audited Bodies issued by the Audit Commission. Annual Audit Letters are prepared by appointed auditors and addressed to Members or officers. They are prepared for the sole use of the audited body, and no responsibility is taken by auditors to any Member or officer in their individual capacity, or to any third party.

Closing remarks

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to express my thanks for the assistance received from officers during the course of our work.

This has been another demanding year for the Council and we very much appreciate your co-operation and support, which has contributed to the efficient delivery of our audit.

Neil Childs
District Auditor

16 January 2003

Reports already issued or in progress

NHS flexibilities (July 2002)

Management of partnerships (July 2002)

E-government (August 2002)

Management of procurement (October 2002)

Financial aspects of corporate governance (October 2002)

Best Value report (October 2002)

Best Value opinion and certificate (20 December 2002)

Financial statements audit (due January 2003)