Author: John Brace

Tom Sault introduced the Statement of Accounts covering report and Appendix. He said the Merseyside Pension Fund was part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral’s accounts and this was a recommendation from the Pension Committee. There was the report to the District Auditor, Annual Governance Statement and letter of representation as well as the Action Plan. It had been signed off and there had been a briefing in July.

Unfortunately it had been published on the 4th July instead of the 30th June, which was behind the deadline. These would be formally published by the 30th September. They would get the auditor’s report in the next couple of days. There was an adjustment to one outstanding item, which was likely to happen by the end of the day. It was to do with a complex issue affecting £6 million of capital grants. This had no effect on the bottom line. There was an adjustment to two accounts, one being the technical services department with regards to how assets are treated under the International Financial Reporting Standards. This had no effect on the bottom line, but lessons had been learnt.

Cllr Crabtree asked Mike Thomas to respond.

Mike Thomas said the key messages had been issued in a supplement to page 36 and went on to talk about value for money, internal control weaknesses and key matters. He said it had been a challenging year in the public sector. He was still of the view that it was an unqualified opinion. He thought project management could be better and they needed to manage the process better.

Cllr Jim Crabtree (Chair) said “Good evening” to start the meeting. He asked for any declarations of interest. No declarations of interest were declared. The minutes of the meeting held on the 30th June 2011 were received.

An officer introduced the Merseyside Pension Fund accounts and Appendix. He said they had been audited and the recommendation was to agree the accounts (and amendments) as well as the letter of representation. The accounts had been to Pension Committee on the 19th September, but this was a briefer version. He referred to the appendix and the changes made by the Audit Commission as well as changes due to International Financial Reporting Standards. The audit opinion was unqualified. There had been lessons learnt about reconciliation and investment accounting.

Cllr Crabtree said he would take agenda items 3, 4, 5 and 6 together as they were related.

Mike Thomas, introduced the Annual Governance Report into the Merseyside Pension Fund. He also referred to the Pension Committee meeting. He said it was an unqualified opinion, but there were outstanding matters which were detailed in the supplementary pages. It was an unqualified opinion but there were two material errors in presentation and classification.

He referred to page 12 and said there were no issues about independence. The recommendations in the report were subject to discussion about the amendments which were as a supplementary paper. All work was complete. The report sets out in detail changes which would need to be done by next year, and he alluded to the main one. He thanked the Merseyside Pension Fund team and pointed out the deadline was Friday.