Councillor Phil Davies introduced this report, which reminded Members that the Council’s Constitution allocated responsibility for the approval of the Statement of Accounts to the Audit and Risk Management Committee.  The draft Statement for 2015/16 published on 30 June 2016 was subject to audit by Grant Thornton, the Council’s External Auditors, and their findings were presented and approved at the Audit and Risk Management Committee meeting on 26 September 2016.  The Statement of Accounts 2015/16 had been published on 30 September 2016 – the statutory deadline for publication.

The Accounts included the Merseyside Pension Fund (MPF) accounts as the Council was the Administering Authority for MPF.  As the MPF received a separate Audit Findings Report, this had been considered by the Pensions Committee at its meeting on 19 September 2016 and the Audit and Risk Management Committee as part of the approval of the Accounts.  These had been finalised and published and were being reported to the Cabinet for information and noting. 

The Annual Governance Statement 2015/16 and action plan had been considered and approved at the same meeting of the Audit and Risk Management Committee.

The Cabinet noted the content of the Annual Audit Letter 2015/16 that had been presented to Audit and Risk Management Committee on 22 November 2016.

Councillor Phil Davies drew attention to the financial position of the Council following the audit showed an in year revenue under spend of £1.3 million and year-end balances of £22.2 million. He thanked all the Officers who had been involved with the accounts.

RESOLVED: That

(1)  the Statement of Accounts 2015/16 and Annual Audit Letter be noted; and

(2)  progress on delivering the actions identified in the Annual Governance Statement be monitored by Audit and Risk Management Committee.