Agenda item

Dewi A.Morgan, Host Authority Head of Finance (Statutory Finance Officer) and Sian Pugh, Host Authority Assistant Head of Finance, to present the report.

To accept and note NWEAB's Statement of Accounts (subject to audit) for 2022/23.

The report was submitted by Dewi A. Morgan (Statutory Finance Officer).  It was noted that:-

·         The Board, for the second year, had prepared a full set of statement of accounts, instead of the official form used in previous years, because North Wales Ambition was a "larger relevant body" in accordance with the requirements of the Accounts and Audit (Wales) Regulations as their annual income or spending was over £2.5m.

·         The annual Statement of Accounts had been prepared in accordance with the Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting.

·         The Ambition Board had received the information in a much more useful way when the Ambition Board's Revenue and Capital Out-turn Position for 2022/23 had been presented on 5 May, and the decision made during this meeting was noted.

·         The figures that appeared in table 1, page 3 of the report were consistent with the contents of the revenue out-turn report, and that what was seen in much of the document were technical matters relating to accounting conventions. Also, in the same manner, figures appeared that reflected the capital spending.

·         The pensions figures were different this year.  It was noted that the Ambition Board had a pension liability of £942,000 on 31 March 2022, but on 31 March 2023, the assets value was higher than the liabilities value with a net asset position of £572,000. It was explained that the reason for this was that the actuary's valuation used UK corporate bonds, and because these have yielded high, it had led to high accounting discount rates, which made the pension liability values substantially less. It was further explained that the pension calculating standards did not allow assets to be shown for a defined benefit pension scheme, therefore the asset's value had been adjusted to £0 on the balance sheet. Further instructions were expected on this from Audit Wales and CIPFA, and if any change to the handling was needed following these instructions, they would be revised by the final Statement of Accounts.

·         The Statutory Finance Officer had signed the minutes on 7 July and had certified that he was of the opinion that the Statement of Accounts had been prepared in accordance with the appropriate practice as set out in the CIPFA/LASAAC Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting. It was noted that the Statutory Finance Officer believed that the Statement presented an accurate and fair picture of the North Wales Ambition Board Joint Committee's financial position on 31 March 2023 and the Joint Committee's income and expenditure for the year ended at that time.

·         The statements would go on to be reviewed by Audit Wales, the Ambition Board's external auditors, and the final accounts, together with the auditors' report, would be presented to the Board during the autumn.

RESOLVED to accept and note NWEAB's Statement of Accounts (subject to audit) for 2022/23.

REASONS FOR THE DECISION

There was no statutory requirement for the Board to approve the draft Statement of Accounts of the Joint Committee, but the submission of the draft statement for information was considered good practice to follow.

The Board will need to approve the final version following receipt of the Audit Wales report, but the submission of the draft now was an opportunity for Board members to consider the content and question financial officers about the content.  This was an opportunity for the members to equip themselves with relevant information to consider relevant risks, and other matters that will be subject to audit, in their context.

DISCUSSION

The Statutory Finance Officer and his team were thanked for the work.