Kent Fire and Rescue Service
Annual Governance Statement 2018/19

The Financial Management framework continues to operate well with the External Auditor commenting on the high quality of the final accounts and the supporting information. The Authority’s financial statements were submitted in a timely fashion and an unqualified opinion on the accounts was issued in advance of the national deadline of 31 July 2018. A strong anti-fraud culture ensured that no issues were reported during year. The Medium Term Financial Plan is robust with reasonable assumptions made in the absence of firm information.

The internal auditor has undertaken seven separate reviews during the year. Two of these have been completed and reported to KMFRA: Crewing received an assurance level of ‘Adequate’, while Disaster Recovery was assessed as ‘Limited’. The assurance levels for the remaining audits (Operational Training, GDPR, Recruitment, Finance and Procurement) will be taken to the June 2019 KMFRA meeting. Furthermore, action plans are being put in place to address all of the auditor’s recommendations.

There has been a wide ranging review of Service Orders in the framework. A strong and well publicised financial management control framework exists with documentation within its review dates and which is kept up to date and made available to all staff. Financial support and training for managers is provided by finance staff as required. Financial management is considered to be strong, with active management and regular monitoring of expenditure. The Authority has a prudent level of general reserves in place as well as specific earmarked reserves for key infrastructure projects.