Falklands : Standing Finance Committee Report (01/27/060
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 30.01.2006 (Article Archived on 13.02.2006)
Find out what happened during this important committee meeting.
STANDING FINANCE COMMITTEE REPORT (01/27/06)
By J. Brock (FINN)
A meeting of the Standing Finance Committee took place at 0800 on Friday, 27 January 2006 in the Liberation Room of the Secretariat. Present was Cllr. Mike summers (Chair), Cllr. Dr. Richard Davies, Cllr Dr. Andrea Clausen, Cllr. Richard Cockwell, Cllr. Ian Hansen, Cllr. Richard Stevens, Cllr. Mike Rendell, Cllr. Janet Robertson, Mr. Derek Howatt, (Financial Secretary), Mr. Keith Padgett (Deputy Financial Secretary) Mr. Chris Simpkins (Chief Executive, Mrs. Hulga Burroughs (Minutes), Ms. Jeanine Langerige (HSBC) and Mr. Martin Arthur (HSBC)
Due to the presentation, all parts of the agenda (there were none from which the press and public were excluded.) Ms. Langerige and Mr. Arthur waited until last to give it.
After declarations of interest the confirmation of the minutes of the meeting held on Friday, 16 December 2005 was signed. Matters arising from those minutes brought comment on 5.3 (the cost of logbooks), 6.2 (Reviewed Cllrs. Meeting List and Criteria to be reviewed – Chris Simpkins commented that the document was largely correct.), 7.2 (Decision on the Abattoir. Dr Clausen said it was approved by FIDB with adequate justification. The loss of £50,000.00 income was due to the collapse of the sheep skin market.
The increase of the Electricity Tariff brought the comment that it was possible it could go higher and this was due to the increasing cost of fuel. There was a knock-on affect to many services due to the high fuel costs. There was a discussion about a computer programme relating to the control of asbestos. It was thought this could be done locally but with some comment that as asbestos is dangerous that professional programmers should do the work instead of having the software designed locally.
One page in the Management Report deals with a monthly pick (Michele does this) of a department to review for areas of funding that can be allocated. It was noted that Medical Treatment Overseas has now been estimated at £750,000.00, up from the original estimate of £400,000.00.
There was a general uncertainty about what affect the higher fuel costs would have on the operating budget. Income measures had been eaten up by the additional costs. A growing problem with the Health and Medical Services Department was the lack of timely invoices from the MOD for hospital supplies. The outstanding invoices could be as high as £300,000.00 and it would put a drain on the budget if the MOD sent and demanded payment for all outstanding invoices.
Papers to be released to the public are one on Tamar FI Berthing Dues, Another about the Road to Second Creek Port Howard, A report on the Stanley Dairy, Remission of Search Fees and the Post of an Archives Assistant. Another paper on Coastal Shipping will not be made public at this time.
Lastly, there was a lengthy report about the Falkland Islands Growth, Pension and Insurance Funds handled by HSBC by Ms. Jeanine Langrige and Mr. Martin Arthur. The presentation covered equity and fixed interest aspects of the investment. Items such as Performance of the fund, attribution and impact of the benchmark change, for the pension and other funds as well as the insurance fund were discussed. UK Equities and a brief explanation about the markets came next with HSBC’s new strategy for its investment business. Advantages of the new structure were presented along with ideas about improving people and processes within Halbis Partners and UK Equity Changes were presented.
Changes in the Fixed Income Team were announced as well as the performance of the Falklands Insurance fund relative to the benchmark in 2005. The presentation continued with an explanation about fees and an assessment of US and Japanese equities options and indexation. The advantages and disadvantages of index funds were discussed as well as MERIT (enhanced index) product summary, process, profile and performance record were explained.
The role of Multi-Manager and his performance was announced and some background material was presented, especially the economic impact of higher oil prices. Asset allocation for the pension fund was also discussed.
The meeting ended later than usual at 1010hrs.
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