The council’s long-awaited 2016/17 accounts have been signed off after a two-year wait.

A statement of accounts was published on Reading Borough Council’s (RBC) website today and the signing off of the accounts will be confirmed at tonight’s Audit and Governance committee meeting.

External auditors were unable to verify the accounts due to historic failures by the council to meet good accounting practice and control standards.

Councillor Jason Brock, leader of the council, said: “I am pleased we have now got to the point we have. It is tremendously frustrating it has taken so long.

“The whole process has given us the opportunity to correct the technical issues. We knew the process of putting it right would incur additional costs.”

RBC has spent more than £435,000 getting the 2016/17 accounts signed off.

This is an additional spend of at least £327,000 compared to the originally anticipated fee of £108,938.

The council’s Audit and Governance committee will meet tonight to update on the accounts for 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19.

External auditors EY will present their 2016/17 audit results report at the meeting.

The council’s own report states that the 2017/18 draft accounts are in the final stages of being completed and it is anticipated they will have been handed over to the council’s external auditors, Ernst & Young (EY), by Tuesday.

The formal period of public inspection for the 2017/18 accounts is expected to begin in the week commencing July 29.

The 2018/19 accounts should be available for audit and public inspection by early September 2019.

RBC will now consider whether to apply for a refund from previous auditor KPMG.

You can view the 2016/17 statement of accounts here.

Information on accounts from previous years can be found here.