AFS approved by councillors
Cavan County Council will not be returning money to the Exchequer despite Covid influenced underspend by the authority. Council members got the outline of the local authority's financial position at an online meeting last week.
The unaudited Annual Financial Statement (AFS) of the Council was presented by the Acting Head of Finance, ICT and Emergency Services, Margaret McNally, outlined the local authority's income and expenditure accounts for 2021.
The AFS is audited by the Local Government Audit Service and the report of the Principal Local Government Auditor is submitted to the members of the Council.
The special council meeting for the AFS showed Gross Expenditure of €78,009,940 with income of €57,318,645.
The cost of the eight divisions housing, roads, water, development management, environmental services, recreation amenity, agriculture, education, health and welfare and miscellaneous services is €20,691,296. This is matched with rates income of €16,536,137 and Local Property Tax and local Government Fund of €10,161,497. This leaves a balance is €6,006,238, with transfers tow and from reserves at €6,006,121.
Members thanked the Acting Head of Finance for the presentation to the meeting. Cllr John Paul Feeley asked for clarification on the development management underspend, with Cllr Shane P O'Reilly noting there were a total of 17 incidents of underspend and asked for a figure on how much was sent back to the Exchequer.
Ms McNally said the local authority had budgeted for a Leader spend of €4, but only spend €410,000 on the programme. This lead to an under-budget of €3.6M. John Donohoe, Senior Executive Officer, Cavan County Council, explained that 2021 was supposed to be the last year of the current Leader cycle, but Covid restrictions resulted in a number of delays in construction projects: “It's really just timing, we will see that money being drawn down in full within '22 and perhaps into '23. That money has been committed, it is just a matter of it being given out.”
The Acting Head of Finance also confirmed that all the funds would be retained into the coming year, rather than being sent back to the Exchequer.
Three sets of proposals were adopted by local authority members. The adoption of the AFS was proposed by Cllr Feeley and seconded by Cllr SP O'Reilly, the approval of additional revenue expenditure was also proposed by Cllr Feeley, with Cllr Wiston Bennett seconding and the approval of transfer to capital reserves was proposed by Cllr Carmel Brady and seconded by Cllr Feeley.
The statement of rate collection was noted by the authority members.