The Treasurer submitted a report, the purpose of which, was to present the unaudited Statement of Accounts for the financial year 31^st March 2015.

The Finance Manager – Technical and Corporate advised that the Accounts & Audit Regulations required that the Joint Committee sign and date the accounts by the 30^th June 2015, certifying that they present a true and fair view of the status of the Accounts. The Joint Committee were then required to re-approve the accounts as soon as reasonably practical after the receipt of the auditor’s final findings.

The unaudited accounts were attached at Appendix 1 to the report, and have been produced in line with the Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting in the UK for 2014, which was in line with International Financial Reporting Standards.

She confirmed that the Accounts would be placed on public deposit and be subject to audit. Once audited, then they would be presented to the next Joint Committee meeting on 24^Th September for formal approval.

The Accounts showed that the:

·         Catalogue Supplies Service made a net surplus of £300,000 as shown on page 45 of the Statement of Accounts. This surplus has been added to the accumulated usable reserves increasing the reserve balance at 31 March 2015 to £1,304,000 as shown on page 46 of the Statement of Accounts.

·         The short term debtors and creditors balances shown in the Balance Sheet on page 46 include related party transactions in respect of the relevant member bodies that form the Joint Committee. A breakdown of the related party balances is shown in the table on page 57 of the Statement of Accounts. This information has been provided separately to the Finance sections of each of the member councils.

·         The cash position as shown on page 47 of the Statement of Accounts has increased from £425,000 at 31 March.2014 to £618,000 as at the 31 March 2015. As with all financial statements, the cash flow position is a snapshot in time, with the position changing daily. However it is encouraging to note that Catalogue Supplies Service now sees itself in a healthy cash position compared to the years prior to April 2013 when it was in a net cash overdrawn position. In the future, this cash reserve will be partly used to support the relocation plans of the service; however the impact on useable reserves and estimated surplus remaining will be closely monitored to ensure that any costs associated with the relocation are affordable and won’t have a negative impact on cash balances.

The Finance Manager – Technical and Corporate, added that for reporting consistency, the actual performance for the year was also provided in the format normally reported to the Joint Committee in the table shown on page 18 of the report at paragraph 4.5. This showed a surplus of £295,000, as it excluded any accrual in respect of holiday entitlements earned by employees but not taken at the year end, and supporting explanations of the more significant variances were contained in paragraph 4.6 of the report.

RESO                             RESOLVED:                That the Joint Committee approved its unaudited Statement of Accounts for 2014-15

RESOLVED