Minutes:
The report of the Director of Finance on Fund Performance and Administration was outlined to the Panel to the Panel by the Pensions Manager, Chief Accountant and the Head of Personnel.
Officers reported that the overall performance of the fund had been 0.45% above benchmark.
The Panel were informed by the report of the Director of Finance that training was available from the custodian Northern Trust. Members had indicated at previous meetings that they would appreciate training from this provider. The Panel was advised that the event would be being held on 21 June. This would be an event which would include representatives from other local authorities and would, therefore, provide an opportunity to meet trustees of other local authority pension funds and share views, knowledge and experience.
The Chair sought the advice of officers regarding the suggestion from ING that the benchmark used for their property fund be altered. Mr. Jones advised that any decision on changing the benchmark should be deferred until the investment strategy review was completed.
The Panel stated that they had no appetite for more risk and would seek the advice of the Director of Finance as regards the change of benchmark as suggested by ING
The Chair asked for further details under “Pensions Administration” regarding compliance with the Data Protection Act”, disclosure of information under various rules etc. He suggested that a certificate of existence for pensioners above a certain age should be required. .
The Pensions Manager informed the Panel that the Council participated in the Audit Commission’s National Fraud Initiative. This involved data-sharing between the DWP and local authority pension funds. The aim of this would be to prevent situations where, for example, someone was collecting the pension of a dead pensioner fraudulently.
It was agreed that a paragraph regarding the position on the above subjects was to be included in future reports.
As regards the CIPFA Guidance Notes, circulated earlier, as per the decision of the Pensions Panel, the Chair indicated that there were three fundamental issues:-
1) Delegation of the power, in relation to maintaining a Pension Fund- either to a Committee, Sub-committee or Officer of the authority;
2) Reporting to Council, either through a Pensions Committee or through a non-Executive Committee;
3) Representation of other employers as admitted bodies and other representatives.
The Chair expressed his opinion that Haringey Council could adopt any of the models, as mentioned in points 1 & 2 or as per the 2nd of March draft report of the Monitoring Officer on the subject but the most important point was that the structure for maintaining the Pensions Fund must be effective and compliant with the Myners Principles.
In addition, he expressed the view that there must be representation of all stakeholders, either with or without voting powers.
However, in order to make the “Pensions Panel” compliant with the 10 points in the Myners principles , as the initial step to be reviewed within a short period the Chair proposed that 4(a)(i) of the proposed Governance Policy Statement be amended to state that General Purposes Committee receives the minutes of Pensions Panel. It was proposed that the phrase “has concurrent powers” be removed from the sentence and be replaced by the phrase “General Purposes Committee shall receive minutes from Pensions Panel”, subject to the advice of the Monitoring Officer.
RESOLVED:
1. That the Fund Performance position as at the end of January 2006 be noted.
2. Change of benchmark for ING to be determined by the Director of Finance.
3. That the budget monitoring position as at the end of January 2006 be noted.
4. That the Governance Policy Statement be amended as outlined above, subject to the advice of the Monitoring Officer, as an initial step.
5. That future reports include information on compliance with requirements for the disclosure of information and the Data Protection Act under the ‘Pensions Administration’ heading.