Agenda item

This report provides a summary of administration and governance issues reviewed, or approved, by the Local Pension Board at its last meeting that require noting or action by the Pension Fund Committee.

Speakers:

Tim Evans, Independent Chairman of the Local Pension Board

Collette Hollands, Head of Service Delivery

Key points raised during the discussion:

1. The Chairman of the Local Pension Board presented a report which provided a summary of administration and governance issues reviewed by the Local Pension Board at its last meeting. He highlighted the Turnaround Programme which was now in Phase 2 and was an extensive exercise over a long period of time.  He summarised the administration performance and stated that the presentation of performance statistics was to be improved.
2. The Asst Director - LGPS Senior Officer provided an update on Phase 1 of the Turnaround Programme regarding transitions made and new appointments of officers.
3. The Chairman stated the importance of the move to a sovereign status and stressed the substantial challenges ahead with regards to annual programme and McCloud for example, where special teams would need to be set up.  He thanked the Board for the detailed monitoring.
4. The Committee considered the risk register that was now a combined register of administration and governance and had been overhauled as a result.  The Chairman requested that a note be added to Risk A12 in that it was more than GMP liabilities and was also about equalisation.  He advised that advice was still awaited on sex equalisation and there was still a way to go on that.
5. The Committee were reminded to undertake the Pension’s Regulator Public Sector Toolkit as a part of the requirements for knowledge and understanding.

Actions/ further information to be provided:

The Chairman requested that a note be added to Risk A12 in that GMP liabilities also included equalisation.

Resolved:

1. That the minutes of the Local Pension Board meeting of 5 August 2021 be noted.
2. That the following changes to the administration risk register were approved:

i-              Risk A2 Lack of process ownership leads to ineffective processes and errors,

ii-             A3 Failure to follow up on outstanding issues results in inefficiency and damaged reputation.

iii-           A4 Lack of capability of the admin system leads to inefficiency and disruption,

iv-           A7 Unstructured training leads to underdeveloped workforce resulting in inefficiency,

v-            A10 Gaps in skills and knowledge due to key person/single point of failure and different skill requirements leads to inefficiency and poor performance,

vi-           A11 Failure to get on top of the backlog leads to resource issues and management distractions,

vii-          A12 Failure to identify GMP liability leads to ongoing costs for the pension fund,

viii-         A14 Lack of productivity leads to impaired performance,

ix-           A19 The Pensions Payroll process had migrated onto the Altair system from SAP in Nov 17. The risk of errors in the current processes are increased by the core Altair payroll system not being integrated with the BACS generator application meaning items have to be recorded twice.

x-            A20 Head of Pension Administration leaving the Council may dilute the organisation's collective knowledge and impact on decision making,

xi-           A23 Management control of backlog leads to inaccurate Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) leading to a loss of confidence in levels of assurance from the Pensions Administration team and new risk and

xii-          A24, Management control of backlog leads to inaccurate Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) leading to a loss of confidence in levels of assurance from the Pensions Administration team.