Agenda item

To receive a report from the Head of Wiltshire Pension Fund on the Fund Business Plan and Budget. To include:

a)    A presentation by SWAP on their recent internal audit

b)    A presentation by Aon on their review of the Fund

c)     An update from the S151 Officer on the staff restructure

The Committee considered the report of the Treasurer of the Pension Fund, seeking approval for the 2022/23 Business Plan and Budget for the Wiltshire Pension Fund. In addition, the Committee received presentations from SWAP on their recent internal audit, Aon on their review of the Fund’s administration function, and an update from the Section 151 Officer on the staff restructure.

The Section 151 Officer explained that there were serious issues to reflect upon, and as part of this he undertook a review of the management structure which resulted in the appointment of Jennifer Devine to her current role as Head of Pension Fund.

The Head of Pension Fund reported that she was keen to research the issues to be addressed, recruiting Aon to undertake an independent review of the Fund and SWAP to undertake an annual internal audit. 

The report detailed the need for significant improvements to the operation of the Fund, as identified by the Aon review and SWAP. The recommendations from these reviews and other known actions were incorporated in the development of the Business Plan for the coming year.

The Committee noted that the Business Plan focussed on delivering the required improvements and highlighted the budgetary impact for each action. It was set for one year only in order to tackle immediate service priorities, but also contained information on the desired longer-term deliverables.

In response to comments and queries from the Committee in relation to the report and presentations from Aon and SWAP, officers and representatives from the Council, Aon and SWAP provided the following feedback:

·       It was confirmed that management had an opportunity to comment on the proposed actions arising from SWAP findings and these would have been incorporated within Appendix 1 of the report.

·       Officers would proceed with the purchase of the Altair one-off payment module to reduce the risk of errors between SAP and Altair  and eliminate the need to carry out as many checks.

·       Detail about recharges to the Fund would be considered at a future meeting of the Committee.

·       SWAP would be asked if they would be able to provide an update on Fiduciary Duty for members of the Committee.

·       Monitoring systems were not currently up to standard in their current state, some areas had been addressed and the remainder would be addressed. Once complete systems would have the functionality required.

·       A further report detailing the actions arising from recommendations in the SWAP report would be reported to the Audit Committee on 27 April 2022. 

·       Concern about delays in signing off accounts for the Council and their impact on Pension accounts.

·       Apart from the Pension Fund struggling to retain trained staff, there were only anecdotal figures available in relation to the impact of Covid following Aon’s 2018 LGPS survey.

·       Staff engagement in responding to surveys would not be likely to achieve 100%, and the response rate which had been received was considered to be very positive. 

·       An additional two full time equivalent employees had been assigned to the rectification project.

·       Aon noted that the Fund’s current level of resource of 16 FTE focussing on casework did not appear to need increasing.

·       Annex 1 – the Business Plan 2022/23 Improvement Plan detailed the actions to be tackled throughout the coming year.

·       The budgetary impact of the figures detailed at Action 2 – Strategic Asset Allocation and Action 14 – System Review were estimated values, which would be confirmed through a competitive procurement process.

·       It was anticipated that Action 16 – Collaborating with investment managers to ensure climate risk is appropriately addressed would provide a positive impact on returns.

·       Action 7 would provide for weekly KPI’s, a key driver in improving performance.

·       The proposed budget spend detailed in the report would be financed from the Fund.

·       Outsourcing for clearing backlogs and pensioner payroll cases with higher value differences would be separate pieces of work, and both included in the budget.

·       Pensioner payroll cases with differences up to £5 per month were included in the action plan.

Resolved:

a)    Approve the Business Plan 2022/23, including the vision, strategic vision goals, values, and actions for the year.

b)    Approve the Pension Fund budget for 2022/23 shown in Appendix 1 totalling £4.608m (0.15% of total fund value).

(Note: The meeting was adjourned for lunch between 12.40pm and 1.20pm)