Decision details

The Committee considered a report setting out, for approval, the County Council's final statement of accounts for 2017/18.

At its meeting, on 30 July 2018, the Committee had been unable to approve the statement of accounts due to an unresolved issue around the accounting treatment of LOBO loans. As a result, the Committee had noted the report considered at that meeting. Following the resolution of the issue around the LOBO loans, the statement of accounts had been finalised and were now presented to the Committee for approval.

It was reported that, at the suggestion of the external auditor, two additional explanatory notes had been added to the statement of accounts to explain the nature of the loans and the use of Auditor Guidance Note (AG) 7 rather than AG8 in the accounting method for the LOBO loans.

It was confirmed that no further changes had been made to the statement of accounts since the meeting of the Committee on 30 July.

It was also reported that, whilst there had been no changes to the management representations approved by the Committee at its meeting on 30 July, in order to conclude the audit following approval of the statement of accounts, there was a requirement for the representations to be approved again and for a further letter, as set out at Appendix 'A', to be signed by the Chief Financial Officer and the Chair of the Committee.

Resolved: - That:

(i)  The management representation letter set out at Appendix 'A' to the report, now presented, be signed by the Chief Financial Officer and the Chair of the Audit, Risk and Governance Committee prior to it being made available to the external auditor.

(ii)  Approval be given to the 2017/18 Statement of Accounts, as set out at Appendix 'B' to the report, now presented, for Lancashire County Council and the Lancashire County Pension Fund.