UN Pension Fund seeking new head of investments of assets, 23 July 2017

UN PENSION FUND SEEKS NEW HEAD OF INVESTMENTS OF ASSETS
(Representative of the Secretary-General for Investments)

Representative of the Secretary-General for the investment of the assets of the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund (UNJSPF)

The Secretariat of the United Nations presents its compliments to the Permanent Missions to the United Nations and has the honour to request the nomination of candidates for the position of representative of the Secretary-General for the investment of the assets of the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund, at the level of Assistant Secretary-General.

            The Assistant Secretary-General reports directly to the Secretary-General.  The responsibilities and functions of the Assistant Secretary General as stipulated in the Terms of Reference in the Annex of General Assembly Resolution 68/247 B include: 

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Dear Chairman of the Pension Board: response from UN participant representatives, 13 July 2017

Subject: Re: Message from UN participant representatives to the Pension Fund / Message des représentants des participants de l'ONU au Fonds de Pension

Dear Chair,

Thank you very much for your message, which we have read with great care.

Allow us to start by reiterating our thanks to those who voted for us and we look forward to taking part in this year’s meeting of the Board. 

We are pleased to inform you that we take our responsibilities seriously, including the expectation from our constituents to hold the Fund’s fiduciaries accountable for their performance.

To this end, we are heartened by your point that:

“Usually the participant’s representatives gather suggestions/comments from their constituency (participants/staff members) of their employing organizations and bring these issues to the attention of the respective SPC, who decides which of these issues to be brought to the Board.  You may wish to review past Board reports in order to get an idea of issues addressed by the Board in the past and decisions that have been made. They are available through the Fund’s portal for Board documents.”

Pension Board Chair to Participant Representatives: "It's not discussable!"

NOTE FROM LOWELL FLANDERS (REPOSTED FROM FCUNS FACEBOOK GROUP)

13 JULY 2017

At last year’s meeting of the Pension Board, the Chair, Vladimir Yossifov, is reported to have muzzled the UN staff unions, preventing them from making a statement to the Board. He’s actively supported the CEO in blocking two duly elected participant representatives from participating in the UN Staff Pension Committee. 

Now he seems to be again attempting to place a gag order on the participant representatives. On 10 July they sent a letter to all participants (posted below on FCUNS). Note in particular Yossifov’s statement below which raises the question: Has he thought to reprimand the CEO for raising the issue (over which he has no purview) in the first place (at the AFICS/NY annual assembly, video also posted on FCUNS)? Since the matter is not “discussable” as Yossifov says, why did the CEO believe he could discuss it?

Quote from Yossifov's message: “In particular, I would like to state on record the following underlying issues that govern the manner in which the Pension Board conducts its business. First, the UNJSPF has been established by the United Nations General Assembly (UN GA) as a defined-benefit pension plan and this question is not discussable. This is also very clear from the UNJSPF Regulations and Rules. There is no threat or challenge to this status and to raise the possibility of a change in this status with staff is to cause unnecessary concern.”

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This message is sent on behalf of Mr. Vladimir Yossifov, Chairman of the Pension Board, 63rd session:

Re: Message from UN participant representatives to the Pension Fund / Message des représentants des participants de l'ONU au Fonds de Pension

Dear Mmes. Abu-Rakabeh, Nyiratunga, Ndiaye and Mr. Richards,

It has come to my attention that you sent a message on 10 July 2017 concerning Pension Fund matters to all UN staff members. As members of the United Nations Staff pension Committee (UNSPC) and the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Board (UNJSPB or the Board) you are part of the governance of the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund (UNJSPF or Fund), and therefore, you have a fiduciary duty to represent your constituency in the best interest of the Fund in discussions and cooperation with the two other constituent groups of the Board – namely the representatives of the Governing bodies and the administrations of the 23 members organizations. Unfortunately, some of the information contained in your above mentioned message is incorrect. Broadcasting inaccurate information outside the governance structure of the Fund on issues that will be discussed in few weeks in the Board session is not conducive to effective deliberations of the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Board.

Message from UN Participant Representatives to the Pension Fund, 10 July 2017

MESSAGE FROM UN PARTICIPANT REPRESENTATIVES TO THE PENSION FUND/MESSAGE DES REPRESENTANTS DES PARTICIPANTS DE L'ONU AU FONDS DE PENSION

BROADCAST UNHQ
Date: 10 July 2017 at 10:21:18 PM

Subject: Message from UN participant representatives to the Pension Fund / Message des représentants des participants de l'ONU au Fonds de Pension
Reply-To: "Ian Richards" <Ian.Richards@unctad.org>

Dear UN Colleagues,

As representatives of UN staff to the pension fund, elected by you in April, we would like to update you on preparations for the forthcoming annual board meeting, which takes place 24 to 28 July in Vienna.

Issues to which we are devoting particular attention are: the large backlog of payment delays to retirees; proposals to increase the top-heavy nature of the pension fund administrative budget; the need for proposals to speed up the first payment upon retirement; investment underperformance; and in the context of the above, the proposals to renew the current leadership.

Open letter to the Pension Board Chair, 7 July 2017

OPEN LETTER TO THE CHAIRMAN OF THE UN PENSION BOARD

Open letter to Mr. Vladimir Yossifov

 Chairman of the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Board

7 July 2017

Dear Mr. Yossifov,

Subject:  Matters of concern before the upcoming Pension Board meeting, 24-28 July 2017, Vienna

With regard to the annual Pension Board meeting, which will take place in Vienna from 24 to 28 July 2017, while we are not privy to the Board’s agenda, we understand that several important topics will be before the Board for discussion.

Specifically, the issues of investment underperformance and the unprecedented backlog in benefit payments, as variously detailed in General Assembly resolution 71/265, Board of Auditors report A/71/5 Add 16, Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) report A/71/621, Pension Board report A/71/9, and Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) audit 2017/2, are among the issues requiring the Board’s attention.

Resist the illegal and self-serving push to exclude elected participant representatives from the UN Staff Pension Committee, 11 June 2017

AN ILLEGAL AND UNACCEPTABLE PUSH TO EXCLUDE DULY ELECTED STAFF REPRESENTATIVES FROM THE UN PENSION COMMITTEE

The Legal Counsel gave an opinion 25 years ago (November 1992, posted below by CCISUA president, Ian Richards). It was overturned by the Joint Appeals Board. Consequently, it was never adopted into the rules and regulations of the Fund.

Suddenly this old and unimplemented legal opinion is brushed off and pushed forward by the CEO – the focus of the OIOS audit into managerial deficiencies -- and his cohorts for purely self-interested reasons. It should be clear to all why this is happening now.

The Fund is experiencing problems of chronic investment underperformance that puts its solvency at risk; and an unprecedented backlog in benefit payments owing to managerial deficiencies, of which a minimum of 10,000 cases, including thousands of widows and orphans, remain unresolved and unreported by the Fund (see details in the OIOS audit dated February 2017, 2017/02).

These problems are extremely serious and are detailed in a General Assembly resolution (71/265), a board of auditors report, an ACABQ report, and the OIOS audit. At last year’s Pension Board meeting, our staff federation representatives were muzzled by the Chair and members of the Board, while they pushed for early renewal of the CEO's five-year contract, and the media was severely criticized for writing about problems in the Fund.