DISCREPANCIES in relation to the council pension fund emerged as part of a report denoting breaches of the law recorded by “whistleblowers”.

Inconsistencies with the Buckinghamshire Pension Fund were revealed during a Pension Fund Committee meeting, on Thursday, September 24 – which forced administrators to go away and revise ‘outstanding contributions’.

The irregularity appeared “quite late in the day”, according to pensions administration manager Claire Lewis-Smith, and relate to a late payment of contributions falling outside the “prescribed period set out in the Service Level Agreement”.

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Employee and employer contributions were due by the close of the financial year for 2018/19.

Some £285,097 is recorded as outstanding for that period, with £31,587 received after the deadline, leaving just over £253,500 still owed.

For 2019/20, more than £308,060 is recorded as outstanding.

This amounts to a total of just over £561,570 owed for both financial years.

The reason for the breach is due to “the employer’s procedures/administration function”, according to council documents.

Ms Lewis-Smith said: “It has come to light, quite late in the day, there are some discrepancies with the data provided in this report.

“And the proposal is that we will take this away and look at it and come back to the Pension Fund Committee in November with a revised log with exact details regarding contributions that are outstanding to the fund.”

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Other breaches of law noted in the report include a failure to reach 100 per cent of annual benefit statements issued by the statutory deadline for 2020/21, with nearly 79 per cent delivered.

Had a “large scheme employer” not submitted a “poor quality” annual return compelling revision which arrived late, the fund would have recorded 97 per cent.

Other breaches of the law include several refunds of employee contributions for 2019/20 and 2020/21 paid in excess of five years since leaving their employment.

Ms Lewis-Smith said: “Even though we write to members when they leave and also six months before the expiry of the five year period, it is out of our control as to when that member does claim the refund of contributions.”

Nonetheless it is a “requirement” to report the breach, she added.