Government has addressed two of the Auditor's concerns about its Consolidated Fund financial statements but has yet to assure him over pension-related figure calculations.

Last year Auditor Larry Dennis said he encountered problems assessing the amount of money paid in stamp duty from property transactions, the state of the pension fund and employee leave requirements when he audited Government's accounts for the year up to March 31, 1999.

In the House of Assembly on Friday Finance Minister Eugene Cox said the Ministry was able to address two of the issues raised by Mr. Dennis in 1999.

"The qualifications for Stamp Duties and Leave Accrual Balances have been removed for 2000,'' he said.

But in his audit of the Consolidated Fund as of March 31, 2000, Mr. Dennis noted: "I have not been able to obtain adequate assurance on the completeness and accuracy of the actuarial valuations and extrapolations on which the pension liability of $251.7 million and pension-related expenditure of $41.4 million have been calculated.

"As a direct result of this limitation and similar limitations in prior years, I have also not been able to determine the proper classification of a $74.2 million difference between the accrued benefit obligation recorded at March 31, 1999, and that calculated as a result of a shadow valuation performed as at March 31, 1999.'' "The difference has been recorded as an experience loss and is being amortised over the eight year period from April 1, 1999, to March 31, 2007.

This treatment would be correct if the difference is an experience loss.

"However, if the difference is the result of past errors,'' continued Mr.

Dennis, "generally accepted accounting principles would require the amount to be accounted for in the current year.

"Accordingly, I was unable to determine whether any adjustments might be necessary to pension liability, pension-related expenditure and deficit for the year,'' he said.

Excepting the affect of these adjustments -- if they were necessary -- said Mr. Dennis, the financial statements for the Consolidated Fund as of March 31, 2000, presented the account's financial position fairly.

Mr. Cox highlighted a number of the items in the statements.

"There has been a $10 million increase in the cash balance -- this was achieved because of higher than anticipated receipts from payroll taxes, stamp duty receipts, customs duty and wireless fees,'' he said.

"These increases were netted against an additional loan of $11 million to the Bermuda Housing Corporation to assist with their ongoing programme to build and refurbish houses for Bermudians.'' Mr. Cox noted that the level of accounts receivable had increased as it had done in previous years and said the majority of the balance related to taxes which were received in April of this year.

Meanwhile the increased receivable from Government Funds and Agencies related to the Public Service Superannuation Fund and the increase in deferred revenue reflected more refined calculations and higher revenue levels, he continued.

And he pointed out that although Current Account Expenditure was $33 million above original estimates, it was offset by revenue "outturns'' that were $35 million above the original estimates.