COMMITTEE

 

Committee Members, Advisers and Administration

 

The Committee at 1 November 2011

 

Chairman:

 

Mr Trevor Salmon, OBE

 

Deputy Chairperson:

 

Mr Bumper Graham

 

 

Members:

Mr Joe Donaghy

Ms Celine McCartan

Mrs Julie Erskine

Mr Colin O'Hare

Mrs Linda Neilan

Mr Ciaran Quigley

Mr David Jackson, MBE

Mr Peter Caldwell

Mr Peter McMurray

 

 

Administration

 

Chief Executive and Secretary:

 

Mr David Murphy

 

Office:

 

Templeton House,

411 Holywood Road, Belfast, BT4 2LP

 

 

Advisers to the Committee

 

Actuary:

 

Hymans Robertson

 

Investment Adviser:

 

Aon Hewitt

 

Auditor:

 

External Audit – Local Government Auditor

Internal Audit – ASM Howarth

 

Banker:

 

Ulster Bank Limited

 

Custodians:

 

HSBC

 

Investment Managers:

 

Legal & General Investment Management

Aberdeen Asset Management

Wellington Asset Management

Baillie Gifford

Jupiter

Blackrock

Edinburgh Partners

 

Property:

 

LaSalle Investment Management

 

 

 

The Committee

 

The Committee is the corporate body responsible for the administration of the Local Government Pension Scheme (Administration) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2009.

 

Committee’s Responsibilities

 

The Committee is required under the Local Government Pension Scheme (Administration) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2009, as amended, to:-

 

 

The financial statements shall comprise:

 

a). a Foreword;

b). a Statement of the Committee’s Responsibilities;

c). An Accounting Officer’s Statement;

d). A Fund Account;

e). A Net Assets Statement;

 

And shall be prepared in accordance with guidance for the time being issued by the Department of Finance and Personnel.

 

The financial statements shall give a true and fair view of the Fund Account for the financial year, and the Net Assets Statements as at the end of the financial year.

 

Committee Members

 

The Management Committee (which is similar to a board of directors or trustees) consists of a chairman, five members nominated by employers’ organisations, five members nominated by employees’ organisations and two independent members. The Committee members were appointed by the Department of the Environment for a four year term. On 1 July 2009 the Department appointed Trevor Salmon, Julie Erskine, Colin O'Hare, Celine McCartan, Joseph Donaghy and Bumper Graham for a four year term until 30 June 2013. On 1 October 2011 the Department appointed Linda Neilan, Ciaran Quigley, David Jackson, Peter Caldwell and Peter McMurray for a 4 year term until 30 September 2015. The Department also sends an observer to the meetings of the Management Committee and Audit Committee.

 

 

The biographies of the present Committee members are as follows:- 

 

Chairman

 

Mr Trevor Salmon, OBE, from Crawfordsburn has been appointed as chairperson of the Committee. Trevor was previously the Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Corporate Services in Belfast City Council. In addition to his Chairmanship of NILGOSC he is a national Council member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy. He is also a Lay Member of the Solicitors’ Disciplinary Tribunal.   

 

Employer Organisation Nominees

 

 

Ms Celine McCartan      Celine is Campus Manager and Head of Corporate Services at South West College.

 

Mrs Linda Neilan            Linda is the Group Accounting Manager for the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company/Translink with responsibility for core finance, payroll and ticketing projects. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland and previously was an audit manager with Deloitte.

 

Mr Ciaran Quigley         Ciaran is the Town Solicitor and Assistant Chief Executive of Belfast City Council. He previously acted as Director of Legal Services with the Council.

 

David Jackson MBE        David is the Head of Support Services at Coleraine Borough Council.  Prior to that, he was a senior manager with PricewaterhouseCoopers

 

Mr Peter Caldwell          Peter is currently Vice-Chairman of Apex Housing Association Board of Management and a member of the N.I. Federation of Housing Associations Council (NIFHA). Previously he was the Senior Manager with the former Western Health and Social Services Board with responsibility for business planning and performance management.

 

 

Employee Organisation Nominees

  

 

Mr Bumper Graham       Bumper is Assistant General Secretary of the Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance. He is a member of the Education & Library Boards’ Staff Commission.

 

Mr Joe Donaghy             Joe is the former Northern Ireland UNISON Regional Head of health, local government and education. He is an Independent Member of the District Policing Partnership.

 

Mr Peter McMurray        Peter is Lead Representative in Education for GMB the Union. He is also Branch Secretary and represents the GMB in a number of associated Councils, Committees and Forums.

 

 

Independent Member Nominees

 

Mrs Julie Erskine            Julie was previously the Operations Director in a Belfast-based private healthcare company, having also worked as Support Services Director for the same company.  She is also a Member of the Northern Ireland Social Care Council, a Member of the Public Health Agency and a Member of the Audit Committee of the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People.

 

Mr Colin O’Hare             Colin is the Actuarial Science and Risk Management Program Director at Queen’s University Belfast. He has many years experience working as a pensions actuary in Manchester, London, Birmingham and Belfast before joining Queen's University.

 

 

 

Committee Meetings

 

The Committee normally meets on a monthly basis, with the exception of July when no meeting is held. Any matters to be raised with the Committee must be lodged with the Secretary seven days in advance of the next meeting.

 

There were eleven meetings of the Management Committee during the year 2010/11. In addition, four Audit Committee meetings and three Staffing Committee meetings were held during the year. The Audit and Staffing Committees are sub-committees of the Management Committee.

 

Membership of each Committee can be seen from the table below but any member of the Management Committee may attend these meetings in the capacity of observer. The chairperson reports to the Management Committee following every sub-Committee meeting.

 

Details of attendance during 2010/11 are set out below:

 

 

Management Committee

Audit Committee

Staffing Committee

 

Called

Present

Called

Present

Called

Present

David Bell

11

9

4

3

-

-

Stewart Cuddy

11

5

-

-

-

-

Pat Cumiskey

11

9

4

4

-

-

Frank Dunne

11

10

-

-

3

3

Lewis Love

11

6

-

-

3

1

Albert Mills

11

6

-

-

-

-

Brendan Heaney

11

10

-

-

-

-

Trevor Salmon

11

11

-

-

-

-

Joe Donaghy

11

11

-

-

3

3

Julie Erskine

Bumper Graham

Celine McCartan

Colin O’Hare

11

11

11

11

10

9

10

9

-

4

4

-

-

4

3

-

3

-

-

-

3

-

-

-

Average % Attendance

80.4

 

87.5

 

83.3

 

N.B. David Bell, Stewart Cuddy, Pat Cumiskey, Frank Dunne, Lewis Love, Albert Mills and Brendan Heaney retired from the Management Committee on 30 September 2011.

 

Committee Minutes

 

Minutes of all Committee meetings are made and the full minutes are inspected by the Local Government Auditor. Copies of minutes are available on request only as confidential information must be removed before publication to the general public. The information removed is in compliance with NILGOSC’s Freedom of Information Publication Scheme.

 

Requests for a copy of the minutes should be made to :

 

The Information Officer

NILGOSC

Templeton House

411 Holywood Road

Belfast

BT4 2LP

 

 

Declaration of Interests

 

In order to achieve the maximum degree of openness and impartiality, the Committee maintains a register of Committee Members’ and Officers’ Interests. The register is open for inspection at the Committee’s offices.

 

Chief Executive and Secretary

 

Mr David Murphy, the Chief Executive and Secretary, is responsible for the administration of the Scheme and reports to the Committee on a monthly basis. 

The Permanent Secretary for the Department of the Environment has designated the Chief Executive and Secretary as the Accounting Officer for NILGOSC.  His relevant responsibilities as Accounting Officer, including his responsibility for the propriety and regularity of the public finances for which he is answerable and for the keeping of proper records, are set out in the Accounting Officer Memorandum, issued by the Department of the Environment.  The Accounting Officer is also responsible for safeguarding the assets of NILGOSC and hence for taking reasonable steps to prevent and detect fraud and other irregularities.