Mr Paul Audu, Interim Head of Pensions and Treasury presented the Pension Fund year-end closing for the 2023/24 accounts and provided an update on the external audit work.

He said EY were preparing to audit the accounts which were appended to the report at appendix 1. The Board would have a further opportunity to approve the accounts once they had been audited.

In response to comments and questions from members the following was noted:

·       Referring to Paragraph 3.4, Mr Thompson asked if the Board and Committee would receive an update in relation to the work commenced by EY at their September meetings. Mr Audu said this was the aim and the dates referred to on the workplan (Item 8 of the agenda) were indicative dates.

·       Mr Thompson asked for reports to be despatched in a timely manner, as soon as the key audit risks referred to in paragraphs 3.5 and 3.6 were known.  Mr Audu said the Board and the Committee would have sufficient time to assess the risks and said the audited accounts would need to be signed off by the Board and Committee in any event. He said the accounts needed to be published by the 31^st December 2024.

·       Mr Audu confirmed that the prior year set of accounts were to be finalised by September however they were waiting for a government directive regarding this.

·       Mr Audu confirmed that the fees referred to in paragraph 3.7 were not known at present.

·       Referring to page 153 of the agenda and management fees, Mr Jones queried why there was a large variant in numbers. Mr Audu said the set of accounts were still being worked on and the figures quoted were not final numbers.

·       Board members and Abdulrazak Kassim, Director of Finance, Procurement and Audit Governance acknowledged and thanked the finance team for achieving their goal and delivering the unaudited accounts by the 31^st May deadline.

The Pension Board RESOLVED to:

1.    Note the report and the draft unaudited Tower Hamlets Pension Fund Statement of Accounts included in the Council’s Draft Annual Financial Report 2023/24 appended to the report at appendix 1.

To follow.

Mr Paul Audu, Interim Head of Pensions and Treasury presented the Pension Fund year-end closing for the 2023/24 accounts and provided an update on the external audit work.

He said EY were preparing to audit the accounts which were appended to the report at appendix 1. The Committee would have a further opportunity to approve the accounts once they had been audited.

In response to comments and questions from members the following was noted:

·       Members asked if there were any queries that had been raised by the external auditors. Mr Audu said EY were in the preliminary stages of preparing to audit the Pension Fund accounts and said this would be addressed by the time the accounts are ready for sign off.

The Pensions Committee RESOLVED to:

1.    Note the report and the draft unaudited Tower Hamlets Pension Fund Statement of Accounts, included in the Council’s draft Annual Financial report 2023/24 as appended to the report at appendix 1.