Responsible for providing a range of Financial Services to Dundee City Council and their partners, we aim to provide the most effective and efficient delivery of financial services to support ever-changing diverse business needs. The service is delivered through the following key areas which regularly review key processes to provide continuous improvements and best practice:
Treasury Management
The Treasury Function manages both daily cash flow of Dundee City Council and members of its banking group, to accommodate both revenue and capital financing requirements. The accuracy of analysis enables optimal investment decisions to be taken with timely transaction execution, benefitting the Council and business partners though using available opportunities to minimise borrowing costs.
Responsible for the development of the Council's long and short-term borrowing and lending strategy, they manage of the operation of the City Council's Loans Fund to ensure the implementation of these strategies, and prepare and review the Treasury Management Policy and Strategy statement. They ensure completion and submission of financial and statistical returns as well as compliance to legislation, regulation, policies and strategies, providing interim and annual reports to the Policy and Resources Committee.
The team also manage specified investments for the Common Good and Insurance Funds.
Banking Services
Responsible for managing the Councils banking operations and all financial transactions in and out of the Council, the team coordinate the provision of appropriate specialist support and advice in order to assist all Council services requiring financial services. They are the first contact link for external partners, suppliers, systems and products.
The team reconcile and maintain the main and other bank accounts of the Council and its financial partners to audit requirements ensuring all operational controls and processes in relation to banking operations are appropriate and compliant with financial regulation and best practice.
They manage the business continuity arrangements and contingency plans to enable delivery of essential financial services in an emergency.
Responsible for the investigation and reporting of suspicious activities to the National Crime Agency and maintaining the Council’s Anti-Money Laundering Policy ensuring compliance with all relevant legislation and providing guidance and training to Council employees.
Tayside Pension Fund – Investment & Administration
Dundee City Council is the administering authority of Tayside Pension Fund. The fund is one of the 11 Local Government Pension Schemes under management in Scotland with circa £2.9billion of assets under management. The fund covers the 3 local authorities within the local region (Dundee City, Perth & Kinross, and Angus Councils) and a further 42 other employers within the local area. Scheme membership is around 45,000, with 40% active membership and 33% of pensioners receiving payment.
There is also a smaller Transport Fund which is managed on behalf of National Express.
Governance is provided by the Pension Sub-Committee of the Policy and Resources Committee and the Local Pension board.
(i) Investment
Responsible for managing the investments of the Tayside Pension Funds, monitoring the performance of the Fund Managers and reporting to the Pension Investment Sub-Committee on a quarterly basis. Ensuring appropriate asset allocation to accommodate actuarial requirements in terms of returns in order to meet the pensions liabilities of the fund.
Preparing policies and strategies in line with pensions and investment legislation and regulations, ensuring efficient, effective and compliant operations to maximise returns in accordance with defined investment benchmarks.
(ii) Administration
Managing and co-ordinating Pension Administration Services for all Tayside Pension Fund employers to ensure accordance with legislation and regulation through efficient and effective service delivery to meet the objectives of the pension funds administration policy and communications strategy.
The team provide advice and assistance to scheme employers and members with queries and anomalies which require interpretation from Regulations and communicate with specialists and regulators to resolve issues.
To find out more about Tayside Pension Fund, please visit: http://www.taysidepensionfund.org/
Income Control
Responsible for the processing, control, reconciliation and accounting of monies in respect of all income collected by the Council and ensuring accurate allocation and disbursement of funds.
All Council income received through the various payment methods is channelled through Income Control who accurately account for these monies, identify and reconcile individual transactions to numerous Council service systems.
The team ensure the accurate calculation of revenue collection performance, and provide statistics and in-depth analysis for Council Management and Scottish Government returns.
The team also undertake the calculation and disbursement of income collected for Scottish Water.
As well as commercial activities, this service supports all school and essential Social Work Services, assisting with financial service provision to individuals in the community and in Council care provision. They also manage frontline service delivery of the Scottish Welfare Fund to the citizens in need within the city.
Contact Details:
Tracey Russell
Senior Manager – Financial Services
Email: tracey.russell@dundeecity.gov.uk
Tel: 01382 431333
Floor 4, Dundee House
50 North Lindsay Street
Dundee, DD1 1NZ