Agenda item

The Committee considered a report of the Corporate Director, Resources which presented the Statement of Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2014 and raised any significant issues arising from the accounts (for copy see file of Minutes).

The Corporate Director, Resources reported that the statement of accounts had been provided to external audit and that they were available for public inspection until 1 August 2014.  He said that the Pension Fund Accounts were in a strong position with net assets increasing by £45m and informed the Committee that the Local Government Chronicle rated Durham in the top 10 performing pension funds in the country.

Councillor Temple questioned the accuracy of paragraph 12 of the report stating that the net worth had fallen by £220m, due in the main to a decrease in the pension fund liabilities.  The Assistant Finance Manager, Corporate Finance said that this should state an increase, not a decrease and apologised for the error.

Councillor Temple queried the soft loan figure, as he would have expected to see a decrease as they had ceased.  The Assistant Finance Manager, Corporate Finance explained that these were former LGR loans remaining on the balance sheet and they would be chased with the legal team during the year to be recovered or written off.

Councillor Carr asked if the employee car loan figure would disappear from the accounts as was no longer offered.  The Corporate Director, Resources confirmed that this would tail off in a few years as the scheme had stopped last year.

The Committee congratulated the team on preparing the accounts early.

Resolved:

(i)         That the attached Statement of Accounts for the County Council for the financial year ended 31 March 2014 be approved.

(ii)        That the Council’s net worth had fallen due to an increase in the pension scheme liabilities, not a decrease, be noted.