The Committee received the Annual Governance Report (AGR) of the Audit Commission which summarised the findings of the 2010/2011 audit of Merseyside Pension Fund.  It was noted that, subject to satisfactory completion of outstanding matters, the District Auditor planned to issue an unqualified opinion on the Merseyside Pension Fund’s accounts.  She had identified two material errors in the accounts, the omission of a Net Assets Statement as at 1 April 2009, and a mis-classification of £273m pooled investments as equity.  The Pension Fund had agreed to amend the accounts for both of these items.  The District Auditor had also identified a small number of other disclosure errors and one non-trivial accounting error, all of which the Pension Fund had agreed to amend.

The Deputy Chief Executive/Director of Finance provided the Committee with an update in note form.  He told Members that the AGR had been presented to the Pensions Committee at its meeting on 19 September 2011.  His summary on page 3 of that report remained valid and he proposed to give his opinion by 30 September 2011.  Page 5 of the report set out a number of issues that remained outstanding and the Director provided an update on the position in respect of each one.  Attached to his note to the Committee was an updated Appendix 2 to the Merseyside Pension Fund’s AGR.

The Committee went through the AGR and the note setting out updates in detail and it was

RESOLVED:

That the report be agreed.