Despite mismanagement, Pension Board about to reward management with more autonomy", 17 July 2016

The annual Pension Board meeting is currently taking place in Vienna. If the vote for new revised financial rules goes through, as the CCISUA President indicates is likely (see article below titled “Despite the mismanagement at our pension fund, its board is about to reward its management with more autonomy through new financial rules and more senior posts”), even more power will be placed in the hands of those who so far have given every indication that it will be abused for their own self-interest.

Have no doubt: we pay for the management's lobbying efforts to sway Pension Board members to give them more of what they want -- power to do as they please with our retirement savings. We pay for the Price Waterhouse study that gave the Fund management top marks for its failed IPAS management.  We pay for the CEO's senior P5 communications chief and we will pay for the new senior posts the CEO is asking the Board to approve but "not at the junior level where the hard work is being done". It all comes from our hard-earned retirement savings.

Whatever happens at the Board tomorrow, we will continue to raise our voices in protest and make our concerns public. The world will see that at least some of us didn’t sit idly by while our Fund faltered. The mismanagement and greed on the part of our Fund leadership will be on display for all to see. And the even sadder spectacle of indifference, if not negligence, on the part of the UN Administration will be part of the SG’s legacy. Ban, after all, has ultimate fiduciary responsibility for our Fund which appears to have been hijacked by cronyism, if not worse, at all levels – Fund management on both sides; UN Administration; some Pension Board members; and our retiree organization, AFICS/FAFICS.

Now that it's become even clearer what we're up against in our effort to protect our Fund, this is no time to give up. There's too much at stake. Sign the petition sponsored by the hardworking UN staff unions addressed to the Board and the SG if you haven't done so already, and encourage as many others as possible to sign. The petition is our message to them. First to the SG, what happens with our Fund is ultimately your responsibility, and part and parcel of your legacy. And to both the SG and the Board that where they're taking our Fund is not in our interest, and it is most certainly not in our names.

 

Quote from: “Despite the mismanagement at our pension fund, its board is about to reward its management with more autonomy through new financial rules and more senior posts.”

“It is clear that the pension fund’s leadership has not been candid with the Board and other stakeholders. Yet despite this situation, the Board will be asked on 17 July at its meeting in Vienna to approve new financial rules, giving the pension fund significant autonomy from the UN. As the proposed financial rules were only distributed one week ago, many Board members have had little change to read it, understand its significance nor consult with their constituencies. Yet in line with past practice, it is likely on Monday 17 July that the Board will rubber-stamp these rules.”

Read more: http://www.ccisua.org/2016/07/17/3636/

Revised financial rules: http://www.ccisua.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/N1340857.pdf

LINK TO PETITION: https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/The_Board_of_the_UN_Pension_Fund_and_SecretaryGeneral_Ban_Kimoon_Save_our_pension_fund/