Cbus has been commended for its bold move to disclose board salaries in the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees’ 2013 awards for excellence.
The fund won the award for best annual report, the judges describing the information provided to members as reporting and acting with integrity.
The report highlights the $111,000 salary given to board chairman Steve Bracks, along with the base fees and attendance fees for the other directors.
It has already been publicly praised by John Brumby, chair of MTAA Super, who has promised to match the level of disclosure next year.
Hesta was another stand out winner in the awards, picking up trophies for operations/administration and communications.
Its communication campaign encouraged members to make a “digital membership card” that stores their details through Apple’s Passbook.
“HESTA looked closely at their membership and created a campaign that was innovative, well-targeted and useful for members,” said AIST chief executive Tom Garcia.
Other communication awards were won by Equipsuper, AMIST, while ESS Super won for member services, and Philip Brown of MTAA won an award for investment excellence.
AIST CEO Tom Garcia said: “Whether through digital technology, greater disclosure, member services or investment these Award winners have embraced the challenges of today’s super funds and demonstrated leadership in taking the industry forward.”
Interesting words – Cbus has been praised for “acting with integrity” – what does that say about all other super funds – that they do not act with integrity? The industry regulators would be interested to know that! Well done to Cbus though, their report is good. However it is worth noting that many public sector super funds have revealed director and executive remuneration for years, if not decades. Funny how when an industry fund that has declined to make such disclosure over many years (along with all its peers, it must be said) sees the light ahead of its peers, it gets praised! Public sector super funds must be scratching their heads, wondering what they have to do in the governance space to get noticed. The fact is that transparency has been poor across the super industry for many years except where it has been required by law (eg public sector funds). The sooner more funds disclose as Cbus has, the better and everyone can move on (after all, who cares if the chair of a huge fund like Cbus gets $111K, sounds like reasonable value to me).