Issue - meetings

            (a)       That the final Statement of Accounts for 2013/14 be approved; and

(b)       That the Letter of Representation – Flintshire County Council and the Letter of Representation – Clwyd Pension Fund be approved. 

The Corporate Finance Manager introduced Mr. John Herniman and Ms. Amanda Hughes from Wales Audit Office (WAO) to the meeting. 

The Corporate Finance Manager introduced the report to seek Members’ approval of the final Statement of Accounts for 2013/14.  The statutory deadline for the approval of the accounts was 30 September 2014.  The draft document had been considered by the Audit Committee in July 2014 and as part of the final accounts process, WAO had presented the ISA 260 reports ‘Audit of the Financial Statements – Flintshire County Council’ and ‘Audit of the Financial Statements – Clwyd Pension Fund’ to a meeting of the Audit Committee which was held prior to this meeting of County Council.  A number of changes to the draft had been agreed with WAO and these had been incorporated into the final document. 

Audit of the Financial Statements – Flintshire County Council

Mr. Herniman spoke of the significant challenge of preparing a set of Local Government accounts and submitted them for audit.  He advised that an unqualified opinion on the financial statements would be issued when the Letter of Representation from the Authority had been received by the WAO.  He added that the standard of the Statement of Accounts had continued to improve and thanked the Corporate Finance Manager and his team for their work.  A number of risks had been identified on fixed assets, remuneration and exit packages and equal pay claims and these were detailed in the Audit of Financial Statements Report from the WAO.  It was reported that the Authority had not recognised a liability for pension contributions on its equal pay liabilities but the Auditor had been satisfied that the Council had acted on legal advice provided to it and further action by the Auditor was not required.  Mr. Herniman explained that recording of income and expenditure in the correct year had not always been followed.  He added that there were two areas that required further improvement and these were:-

• the establishment, discharge and review of reserves to support the Council’s financial strategy and plan; and
• ensuring that the range of data provided by the administering authority (Clwyd Pension Fund), and actuarial assumptions matched.  Some work to ensure reconciliations were undertaken on a monthly basis had been agreed with management. 

            Audit of the Financial Statements – Clwyd Pension Fund

                        Ms. Hughes advised it was the intention of WAO to issue an unqualified opinion.  She explained that as a result of the audit work, it had been identified that the Pension Fund had underestimated the accrual for the lump sum and death benefit liabilities for former employees who had either retired or passed away up to and including 31 March 2014.  As a result, an amendment was made to accrue an additional £1.107 million of expenditure.  There was a need for the Council to strengthen its arrangements to ensure it accrued for the liability in the correct financial period. 

                        It was also important to work with all employer bodies to ensure that the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 44