VPRS 16017 Annual Statements of Accounts

Successive Local Government Acts since 1874 have required municipalities to prepare a statement showing their financial position for each year ending the 30th September. Annual Statements are audited and then presented to council where they are certified as correct by the Shire President/Mayor, the Town Clerk and the Treasurer.Section 421 of the Local Government Act 1915 stipulated that councils balance their accounts to the 30 September every year. Contained within each statement of balance was to be the following type of information:"...an account of all accounts made, contracts entered into, moneys received and moneys paid by the council during the preceding year, and of all assets and liabilities of the municipality..."The following sections of the same legislation further directed that auditing be carried out on such documents soon after their completion and that auditor's signatures be affixed to the aforesaid documents to prove their validity.The Annual Statements of Account in this series were arranged chronologically by year and provide the following information: city expenditure, contracts, liabilities, rates made, and assets, including estimated values of council properties. Each Statement also contained the date it was audited and approved by the Government Auditor and when it was approved by Council. The Statements of Account were commonly printed and distributed and were bound into volumes containing many Statements in a single volume.Statements from 1949-1960 were hand written, and bound in a single volume. Later Statements were bound individually. Some Statements also provide a covering sheet listing the names of the Mayor, Councillors and Council Officers.