Australia's superannuation funds are deluding themselves that the sector is a world-class operation, according to a leading superannuation expert.The chief executive of Superratings, Jeff Bresnahan, told an industry conference in Melbourne yesterday that, while structurally Australia's super system compares well with those of other countries, operationally the system fails consumers."It is in the execution that the system fails in many areas," said Bresnahan."There is a lack of transparency and consistency of reporting. There is mis-selling and dubious marketing statements."The way funds report to members is not totally transparent and comparable between funds. We are asking consumers to make informed decisions with a lack of available information."Member statements, for example, don't reveal what the total cost is of managing the member's money. They don't reveal what you pay in total to run the fund. They don't include the costs of advice."Bresnahan reserved his most damning comments for the regulators, APRA and ASIC,  as well as the retail super sector's lobby group, the Financial Services Council."The lack of a regulator who will step in and make information disclosure consistent between funds is pulling back on competition and [affects] the ability of consumers to understand and make choices."Right now, there are three sets of numbers for consumers to use to compare funds. There are APRA's tables, our (Superratings) numbers and the FSC's reports.There are also monthly performance numbers being produced by Superrating's competitors, Chant West, which focus on allocated pensions in particular; and Rainmaker, which has developed its own classifications for fund types. In addition, Morningstar reports bi-weekly on retail fund performance, he said"[But] the APRA tables are meaningless to the average consumer because they are 'whole of fund', while the FSC wants everyone to report performance, without including commissions and advice," he said.The highlights of Superratings' own monthly performance tables (and those of Rainmaker and Chant West) are often widely reported in the media, but the full results are only available to the funds themselves who subscribe these services.As for the federal government's blueprint for Super, the Cooper Report, Bresnahan holds out little hope that important changes will occur quickly. The federal government is yet to release its response to Cooper, but Prime Minister Julia Gillard made Cooper's MySuper proposal a key election commitment."Cooper identified a series of important issues for the industry. Superstream in particular; that needs to be implemented as soon as possible, but I can't see that occurring," said Bresnahan.Superstream is the name given to the daunting project of transforming the antiquated paper-based back-office processes of super funds into a completely electronic system."Cleaning up disclosure is another one that needs action immediately," said Bresnahan."But we have just got our third superannuation minister in less than three years. He needs to get up to speed, and he will be dealing with different views and approaches coming to him, so I can't see anything improving in super in the short term."