Surplus of €1.4m recorded by Waterford Council last year

According to the auditor’s report, presented to the members of Waterford City & County Council at their December meeting, the local authority had an overall surplus of €1.4m in 2023, after transfers and reserves of €7.9m, resulting in a cumulative general reserve surplus of €159,000 at year end.

In the report, which was compiled for the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, under Principal Auditor, James Moran, it was noted that the local authority had made “significant efforts in recent years to eliminate its long-standing deficit on the general reserve”.

“The maintenance of a surplus and a balanced revenue account must remain a key objective of management,” noted the auditor.

The Chief Executive’s response was also noted in the report and he indicated it was the local authority’s objective to maintain the surplus going forward.

“However, this objective will need to be balanced against a backdrop of increased demand for services,” said the Chief Executive.

The report also indicated that the local authority’s net assets increased in 2023 by €116m, to €2,423m with net current assets increasing by €8.4m to close at 15.2m. The auditor noted that was “mainly due to an improvement in bank and debtor balances arising from capital projects”.

Accumulated expenditure on work in progress, after transfers to fixed assets, more than doubled to €153.9m, mainly comprised of the North Quays (€86m), housing (€57m) and the URDF (€5.6m). The local authority’s fixed assets also increased, by €32.8m to €2,311m throughout 2023, and according to the auditor’s report that was mainly due to the development of social housing stock and amenities. The members were informed that disposals were in-excess of €7.5m, comprised of tenant purchase sales and use of land for housing.

The report noted that heritage assets of €4.7m were also disposed of and transferred to a Council company, Waterford Treasures at the Granary Ltd. and it was highlighted that work remained in terms of completing a reconciliation of subsidiary fixed asset records to the General Ledger and AFS and that certain historical land and property assets remained summarised or incomplete in the General Ledger and needed reconciliation to subsidiary records.

The Chief Executive acknowledged the need for that reconciliation to take place and stated in the report that an initial assessment was conducted to determine the scale and complexity of that “extensive task”.

He noted that a cross-functional team might have been required to “assemble and oversee” the process to ensure that all subsidiary records were aligned. The members were informed, through the Chief Executive’s response in the report, that the work involved might take “several years” given the nature of the task.

However, it was indicated that a phased approach would be developed to ensure continuous progress.

The report was presented to the members ‘for noting’ and Cllr Donal Barry said it was a very important document and said: “It shouldn’t just be ‘for noting’.” He complimented the auditor for his work and said: “Only for the work of Mr Moran and the auditors we wouldn’t know half of what’s going on.”