Dear Australian Prudential Regulation Authority,

The document I seek is a copy of a document that was prepared by EY Auditor David Jewell for the MLC Super Fund for 2018-2019 which would have a title similar to "Independent Auditor's report on APRA reporting forms and Reasonable Assurance report on compliance".

Part (A) May a have a title similar to "APRA reporting forms required under reporting standards SPS 310"

Part (B) May have a title similar to "Compliance".

Included in Part (B) would be a reasonable assurance that the trustee of the MLC Super Fund {NULIS Nominees {Australia} Ltd had complied with Sections 1017C(2) and 1017C(5) of the Corporations Act 2001.

The ABN of the MLC Super Fund is 70732426024.

The Registration number is R1077223.

Yours faithfully,

Phillip Sweeney

Dear Australian Prudential Regulation Authority,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Australian Prudential Regulation Authority's handling of my FOI request 'APRA Reporting Forms - MLC Super Fund'.

I am in possession of a number of Trustee Compliance reports including one by David Coogan (PwC) for the Host-Plus superannuation fund and one by S. Cuthbert (PwC) for the Retirement Wrap superannuation fund. None of these funds featured in the Hayne Royal Commission.

In a COMPULSORY superannuation system, the compliance reports by independent auditors should not be considered by APRA to be "protected documents".

The Hayne Royal Commission which was deliberated limited in time still found multiple examples of misconduct and non-compliance with superannuation laws by the trustees of several large superannuation funds.

If the Royal Commission had spent more than two weeks on superannuation many more contraventions would have been revealed.

The Royal Commissioner also found APRA to be a "toothless tiger" when it came to enforcement of superannuation laws.

There is clearly an important public interest in the auditor's compliance reports being accessible to financial journalists, financial planners and members of the public - especially for those funds who featured in the Royal Commission, which includes the MLC Super Fund.

The former chairman of the trustee, Nicole Smith, admitted to the Royal Commissioner that she did not consider that there might be criminal implications for taking money out of members' accounts to which there was no justification for doing so.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-08/n...

If APRA seeks to conceal the auditor's compliance report for a fund that featured in the Hayne Royal Commission, then the inference that is to be drawn is that APRA is seeking to protect the directors of NULIS Nominees (Australia) Ltd, the trustee of the MLC Super Fund.

Since 5 April 2020 civil penalties now apply to trustees who breach the statutory covenants of Section 52 of the SIS Act and criminal sanctions apply to trustee directors who contravene the statutory covenants of Section 52A of the SIS Act as per Section 54B of the SIS Act.

This is yet another reason why there should be public access to the auditor's compliance reports, especially for funds and trustees who have a track record of non-compliance.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/a...

Yours faithfully,

Phillip Sweeney