Posted by Dave Mitchell on 28 October 2000 at 14:41:14:

I've just been reading the OPRA documents about Pension Scheme Trustees (see link). Full of very interesting information. If I were a Trustee Director of the IBM Pension Scheme I'd be getting pretty worried about my legal liabilities. Anyway I came across this on page 29 of the document "A Guide for Pension Scheme Trustees":

"All schemes must have a statement from the scheme auditor confirming that contributions have been paid to the scheme in accordance with the relevant schedule. If they have not, the scheme auditor must state the reasons why."

"If the scheme auditor has reasonable cause to believe that any duties relevant to the proper administration of the scheme are not being carried out, they have a legal duty to consider reporting the matter to OPRA."

Since IBM did NOT make the M Plan contributions defined in the schedule for the period 1997-1999, the auditor (PriceWaterhouseCoopers) should have reported this in the Annual Reports for those 3 years. There's no mention in the summary Members Reports that I have, but I don't have copies of the full reports. I doubt there's a mention there either but perhaps someone who has copies could confirm this.

They should also have reported it to OPRA, which I'm certain they did not.

So it seems we should start complaining about the dodgy behaviour of PWC too.

Dave

Posted by Tally_ho_us on 01 November 2000 at 14:46:54:

In Reply to: Failure of the Auditors? posted by Dave Mitchell on 28 October 2000 at 14:41:14:

Dave, This website might help you find the annual reports. They are
on-line. We have viewed last year's several times to prove a point.
Remember last year in the proxy statement there was someone who had
a proposal trying to change the auditors that we use. I have
to addmit that I did not pay much attention to it. I am changing
my mind this year. I will be interested in seeing what you turn up
regarding this. Same auditors in the US and UK.
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