28 September 2015
To: Ms. Linda Saputelli, AFICS/NY President
Copy: AFICS/NY Governing Board
Dear Ms. Saputelli,
Subject:
Request for an extraordinary meeting of the AFICS/NY Governing Board
We cannot fail to respond to your letter of 23 September 2015,
which we consider an affront to all members of AFICS, who look to the Board for
transparent, legitimate and honest representation
Concerning the request dated 12 June 2015 of 82 AFICS
members, under the By-Laws, for a meeting on pension matters, we find it disturbing
that following more than three months of correspondence containing a series of
excuses, you now resort to a perverse interpretation of the AFICS By-Laws to
justify non-compliance with its provisions. Since the Board includes several
members with legal training and experience, it is indeed bizarre that the plain
meaning of the statutes’ language has been so blatantly misused and contorted
to satisfy yet a new excuse for not holding the requested General Meeting. But it doesn’t require advanced legal training
to understand that nothing in the By-Laws requires “individually signed
requests.” By adopting this tactic you treat your dues-paying members with
complete disrespect.
You go further in this regard by shamelessly questioning the
integrity and responsibility of those 82 members who signed the request for a
General Meeting (not for a meeting of the “AFICS/NY Governing Board” as the
subject of your letter indicates). You
have repeated on several occasions the spurious claim that some of those on the
list “. . . later indicated to AFICS/NY officers that they were not aware of
having endorsed such a request.” We must assume this is another falsehood on
your part since you have never indicated who those people were who wanted to
withdraw their names, nor have they ever contacted us to say that they were
misinformed about the purpose of the petition which they signed calling for a
meeting. Moreover, the 82 signers were copied on the original request and on
subsequent communications and the list of names was publicly shared on social
media. Therefore, anyone could have withdrawn his or her name at any time and
while in fact we removed the names of two persons from the list on 17 July 2015
at their request, not a single signer has stated to us that he or she was “not
aware of having endorsed such a request.”
It is curious that you raise the issue of a draft resolution
that was never adopted, at an AFICS meeting that was never held, and that was
not sent to the Pension Board by any of us to whom you address your letter. Perhaps,
you are confused.
For our part, we would certainly have informed you of our
intention to place a resolution before the participants of an AFICS meeting had
you ever provided the opportunity to contribute to a formal agenda – as you promised
on 17 June 2015 when we met with you and other Governing Board members -- for
the requested meeting.
We are gratified to finally receive confirmation, which
should have been provided to all AFICS members immediately on your return from the
Pension Board meeting, of the “renewed assurances” given at the meeting by
Under-Secretary-General for Management Takasu, the Chief Executive Officer of
the Fund Secretariat and the Representative of the Secretary-General for
Investments, as to the continued “bifurcated structure and division of responsibilities
in the Fund and its conservative investment policies”.
We are further gratified to learn, that “it thus appeared
that the proposed revised MoU [has] been put on hold, perhaps permanently”, no thanks
to your efforts.
These two developments were indeed the objects of our
efforts all along, including the petition to the Secretary-General signed by
more than 3000 Fund participants and beneficiaries, which you may recall, you
advised AFICS members not to sign and which you opposed at every opportunity.
Regretfully, we must again stress that these positive developments
occurred not because of but in spite of your efforts, given the many
indications before, during and after the Pension Board meeting of your
continued personal support of the MOU and the CEO, defying all logic given that
the UN Administration itself decided to put the MOU on hold after perceiving
well reasoned opposition by staff and retirees alike.
While you claim that “AFICS/NY members were being kept informed all along about outcomes
in the Pension Board and other pension-related matters by postings on the
AFICS/NY website”, the fact that you consider these actions as sufficient,
given that the members have never been consulted
(the purpose of the meeting we requested) demonstrates astonishing disregard of
the minimal accountability and responsibility owed to AFICS constituents.
Turning again to the issue of the AFICS By-Laws and to the
question contained in Ms. Rickard-Martin’s letter of 17 September 2015 to which
you refer, concerning required elections under the By-Laws, you have not
addressed this issue in your letter.
The AFICS
By-Laws, as you should be aware, require that “The Governing Board shall be
convened by the retiring President as soon as possible after the
annual meeting of the Assembly. It shall at its first meeting elect from its
membership a President, a First Vice-President, a Second Vice-President, a
Secretary, a Treasurer, a Deputy Secretary and a Deputy Treasurer.” Here
again, almost four months after the annual meeting was held on 4 June 2015, you
have failed to comply with the By-Laws. This would certainly be an agenda item
were a meeting ever to be held in accordance with our request.
As far as the matter being closed, as you state, we view
ourselves to be on firm footing in considering your tenure as President, and
consequently this and any further correspondence from you, as lacking
legitimacy. We call upon you to vacate without further delay the post of
President that you currently illegally occupy so that a properly elected
President and other officers, hopefully more accountable and responsible towards
the AFICS membership, may take up their positions under the By-Laws.
We reiterate our request, in the interest of fairness and
transparency to all AFICS members, that this letter and our previous letters on
the matter be posted on the AFICS website with your various responses.
Sincerely,
Curling Smith, Lowell Flanders, Loraine Rickard-Martin
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