There are no rooms full of files lying unattended at the offices of the Pension Funds Adjudicator, says acting adjudicator Elmarie de la Rey.
De la Rey, who was speaking at the Institute of Retirement Funds annual convention this week, says that by the end of November she hopes to have finalised all complaints lodged prior to January 2009.
Her office, however, faces an additional 6 000 new complaints every year.
The remaining backlog is bedevilled by the Private Security Sector Provident Fund (PSSPF), where there are more than 1 200 unresolved complaints to which neither participating employers nor the fund have responded.
“Without any response it is difficult to make a fair determination that could lead to a resolution of the complaint,” De la Rey says.
But she says that where contributions and contribution schedules are outstanding from participating employers, the fund has a problem in providing answers.
The Financial Services Board (FSB) is using its powers effectively to ensure proper governance of pension funds, Jurgen Boyd, the FSB’s deputy executive in charge of retirement funds, says.
He says that, over the past year, the FSB has replaced the boards of trustees of a number of funds, while in extreme cases it has applied to the High Court to place funds under curatorship.
Funds that have had interim boards appointed in terms of the Pension funds Act to protect members in the past year are: the Bargaining Council for the Contract Cleaning Industry (Natal) Provident Fund; Private Security Sector Provident Fund; Impala Platinum Supplementary Pension Fund; Amrel Pension Fund; Diepmeadow Pension Fund; Grain Industry Provident Fund; Electrical Contracting Industry Pension Fund; Electrical Contracting Industry Provident Fund; Construction Industry Retirement Benefit Fund; Impala Workers Provident Fund; and the Sasol Coal Provident Fund.
Boyd rejected suggestions from conference delegates that the FSB did not take strong enough action.
He says that when it is warranted, matters are reported to professional bodies such as the Law Society, and to the National Prosecuting Authority.
“The regulator cannot send people to jail. It is not our role,” Boyd says.
The final distribution of surpluses from retirement funds is likely to be about R40 billion – about half the original estimate of R80 billion, the FSB chief actuary, Marius du Toit, says.
He says altogether surplus distribution schemes have been approved from 1 600 funds, with about 200 awaiting approval. There were 21 000 funds that submitted nil-surplus schemes for approval.