The Cabinet received the Annual Governance Report 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 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 Director of Finance reported that the Audit and Risk Management had gone through this report in detail at its last meeting on 28 September 2011 and he had no issues to draw to Members’ attention.

Councillor S Foulkes drew attention to the best practice adopted by the Merseyside Pension Fund; the Council’s Corporate Governance inadequacies identified in the recently published independent consultant’s report and asked if there was any opportunity for cross skilling.  The Director of Finance informed that the Merseyside Pension Fund was a division of his Department and a single service operator which made it easier for it to deliver governance than a multi service organisation and that no particular skills were needed.  However, vigorous Member training was provided as part of a national training package that was complied with by Pension Fund Trustees and this may account for the greater understanding of governance shown by the Merseyside Pension Fund.

RESOLVED:

That the report be endorsed.