Issue - meetings

1.    Members noted and commented on the draft unaudited Annual Report and delegated finalisation to officers.

2.    Members noted the management response to the external audit report.

            Debbie Fielder (Pensions Finance Manager) presented the annual report and accounts and explained the notes to the accounts given their complexity. 

            Mrs Fielder confirmed that the sign off deadline for the annual report was November so if there were any queries or suggested amendments, they could be included up to the date of signature. She also noted that the annual report and accounts are all in accordance with CIPFA Guidance. Mrs Fielder also noted that fees are under considerable scrutiny and whilst only certain fees are required to be disclosed in the accounts, in the view of full transparency, the Fund discloses the fees including underlying manager fees within the annual report.

            The Chairman then invited Mr Whitely (Welsh Audit Office) to present the report of the audit of the accounts.

            Mr Whitely explained there had been some initial problems with the audit of the accounts but confirmed there were no uncorrected misstatements. He highlighted that some of the points identified were not actually errors but were revisions to updated valuations which had been received after the accounts had been submitted to Wales Audit Office. In relation to paragraphs 13 & 14 the Audit Commission had received strong assurances from officers that, in future, the processes had been put in place to ensure the problems would not be repeated.

            It was noted that there had been major improvements on the previous year's recommendations.

            Councillor Bateman asked whether having up to date information regarding the valuation of assets was important. Mr Whitely said that the first draft of accounts are submitted in June so now that we are in September it was a management decision to adjust for the more accurate valuations but it would not have a major impact if management chose not to update the figures.

            Mr Owen (Employer representative Clwyd Pension Board) said that the accounts were an extremely complex area and was happy that both sides have worked well together.  Mr Owen also noted how pleased he was with the scheme member administration improvements over the last 12 months.

            Gary Ferguson (Corporate Finance Manager) confirmed the accounts will be presented to the Council’s Audit Committee next Wednesday.

            Cllr Llewelyn Jones observed that there were still job vacancies and asked whether these were going to be resolved.  The Chairman said that he had been reassured that work was being done to fill these vacancies.

RESOLVED:

1.    Members noted and commented on the draft unaudited Annual Report and delegated finalisation to officers.

2.    Members noted the management response to the external audit report.