22 October 2021
John Luke
By email: [FYI request #16474 email]
Dear Mr Luke
Request for Official Information
We refer to your request for official information sent to the Board of Trustees of the National Provident Fund
on 22 August 2021, in which you asked for:
(a)
the full meeting minutes of the Board of Trustees of the National Provident Fund from 1 January 2020
to now; and
(b)
the pay rate of each member (including whether Board members are paid per day or on an hourly rate)
and any other expense reimbursement paid to each member since 1 January 2020.
We apologise for the delay in responding to your request under the Official Information Act 1982 (the OIA).
As explained in our earlier email sent 8 October 2021, we understand your initial request sent via fyi.org.nz
was inadvertently directed to our spam folder and we were unaware of it until the Office of the Ombudsmen
notified us of the delay on 8 October 2021. We have now reviewed your request and respond substantively.
Meeting minutes
The OIA requires us to advise you of our decision on your request no later than 20 working days after we
have received your request. However, the volume of documents that fall within the scope of your request
mean it is not possible to release the documents within this timeframe and we require further time to prepare
the documents for release. Our intention is to grant your request with certain information redacted in
accordance with s 9 of the Act.
We note the Act favours disclosure of the documents. We expect to complete the review of the documents
and apply the appropriate redactions within the next 14 weeks. We therefore notify you of an extension of
the time to make our decision and release the requested Board minutes to 31 January 2022.
This timeframe is needed to allow the Board time to review the information prior to release, noting the
meeting minutes contain private and commercially sensitive information. We will release the documents
earlier if possible.
Board fees
The Board of Trustees of the National Provident Fund publishes its financial statements, including
remuneration data of Board members, in its annual report.
Attached is the Annual Report for the year ended
31 March 2021, which confirms the total fees paid to individual Board members was $215,000 and the total
Board fees including expenses was $230,0000 (being $15,000 paid in expenses). The Annual Report also
records that all Board members were paid a reduced fee for six months in the past financial year to account
for the impact of Covid-19.
The Board’s Annual Report is tabled in the House of Representatives and is publicly available through the
Parliament website should you require similar information in future (www.parliament.nz).
For your convenience, the following table sets out the annual fees paid to Board members, along with
expenses reimbursed to Board members for the period 1 January 2020 to 31 August 2021:
Pay rate being the
annual fees payable
to each Board
Expenses reimbursed
Board members
member
1/1/2020 to 31/8/2021
Edwards, L
30,800.04
1,953.36
Park, S
35,420.04
5,077.16
Mussett, D
35,420.04
1,532.07
Ansell, G
35,420.04
315.60
Schuck, E (Chair)
61,599.96
2,665.77
Ward, S (Deputy Chair)
44,275.08
167.50
As noted above, the Board fees are paid on an annual basis. The Board fees are approved by the Minister of
Finance pursuant to Schedule 4 of the National Provident Fund Restructuring Act 1990.
Our contact details
If you wish to discuss any aspect of your request or this response, please contact Philippa Drury at
[NPF request email].
You also have the right to request the Ombudsmen review this decision. More information about the
Ombudsmen is available a
t www.ombudsman.govt.nz or by phoning 0800 802 602.
Yours sincerely
Philippa Drury
General Manager, Schemes
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Document Outline
