Open communication to FAFICS (Federation of Associations of Former International Civil Servants) members and associate members
21 January 2018
Dear FAFICS members and associate members,
You may have received the following email, addressed to “Dear beneficiaries”, and signed “UNJSPF”, which appears to have been sent to all UN retirees worldwide, attaching the FAFICS president’s “update” dated 8 January 2018.
“From: DoNotReply <donotreply@
Date: Sun, Jan 21, 2018 at 6:59 AM
Subject: FAFICS Letter
To:
Dear Beneficiaries,
This is a “comprehensive update” sent on behalf of FAFICS.
Thank you and Regards
UNJSPF”
UNJSPF”
1. In this regard, I refer you to my note of 14 January 2018 (see below for ease of reference) in which I responded point by point to several instances of distortion of facts in the FAFICS president’s “update”, and noted her consistent “pattern of partisanship, non-transparency, manipulation of information, and attempts to discredit anyone who questions or opposes her actions.”
2. I also emphasized that “the FAFICS president’s [has] demonstrated unconditional support for the CEO including (i) writing an email to OIOS on 1 June 2016 discouraging the audit of the backlog in pension payments which has caused untold suffering to new retirees and other beneficiaries; (ii) pushing for his advance reappointment in 2016 based on an outdated performance evaluation; and again for a renewed five year term in 2017, while disregarding the accumulated information contained in the reports of UN governing bodies and OIOS audit 2017/002 concerning the role of mismanagement in the Fund.
3. It is impossible to discern from the email purportedly sent from the Fund today, using its confidential member contact information, by whom this email was sent, and on what authority. In fact, one has no way of knowing whether this communication, sent on Sunday, a day when the Fund is closed, at 6.59 am, is the result of a breach of IT security.
4. It is important to recall in this connection paragraph 56 of OIOS audit 2017/104 of post-IPAS implementation: “IPAS and its infrastructure may be susceptible to ICT security breaches in the absence of mechanisms to ensure the completion of periodic tasks to detect and prevent gaps in the ICT security environment.”
5. That being said, given the pattern of abuse of power, self-interest and manipulation of information demonstrated by elements of the Fund leadership and the FAFICS president, this appears to be yet another example of desperation in the form of collusion to propagate misinformation in the face of recent actions by the UN Secretary-General and the General Assembly to address problems besetting our Fund.
6. The Secretary-General and the Fund’s leadership are entrusted with safeguarding our life savings. The FAFICS president is entrusted with representing the interests of UN retirees worldwide. Elements of the Fund’s leadership and the FAFICS president have consistently betrayed this trust by providing mutual support and dissemination of distorted information directly to Fund and FAFICS members, and by posting such communications on the Fund’s and the FAFICS websites.
7. In doing so they continue to demonstrate a clear disregard of their accountability and responsibility to us, the Fund’s beneficiaries and participants who are in reality, the Fund’s owners.
8. I take this opportunity to restate the following from my 14 January note: “Many of the developments initiated by UN governing bodies and the Secretary-General in recent weeks have been positive. Nonetheless, progress will depend on the good faith efforts of those in positions of authority and trust to ensure proper implementation”.
9. I once again urge, for the sake of the continued health of our Fund that you “independently assess the facts and take the necessary action to ensure that FAFICS has the caliber of leadership that enables it to assume its important role in effectively representing the interests of UN retirees worldwide.”
10. I request that you kindly share this communication with your members. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Loraine Rickard-Marti
Beneficiary, UNJSPF
Member, AFICS/NY
c.c. Members of the Board of the UNJSPF
---------------------------------------------------------
14 January 2018
Dear FAFICS
members and associate members,
Subject: FAFICS:
the need for effective leadership; comments on the FAFICS president’s update
dated 8 January 2018
Further to my
communication of 4 January 2018, I wish to draw your attention to several
instances of misinformation and distortion of facts contained in the FAFICS
president’s “update” of 8 January 2018.
As you’re aware,
FAFICS holds four seats (plus two alternate seats) on the Pension Board, without
voting rights. The FAFICS president sits on the Board as the representative of
UN retirees worldwide. From this position of authority and influence, she has demonstrated,
as in this “update”, a pattern of partisanship, non-transparency, manipulation
of information, and attempts to discredit anyone who questions or opposes her
actions.
Following are
some examples of the misleading information contained in the FAFICS president’s
“update” and my responses:
1. “. . . the Board’s Audit Committee [has]
the delegated responsibility for dealing with internal and external audit
issues.”
Response: The Board, at its 2017 session, in recommending
the CEO for a five-year and eventual three-year reappointment, had the benefit
of three brief paragraphs (25 to 27) in the report of the Audit Committee dated
12 July 2017 pertaining to the Committee’s consideration of OIOS audit 2017/002
(70 pages with appendices) on the role of mismanagement in the unprecedented
backlog in pension payments. The Committee, rather mildly, (quote from para.
27) “[took] note of the improvement in
benefit processing…. noted that the Fund defined actionable cases as those
where all the required documents had been received …[and] continued to believe
that additional work is needed to provide an accurate inventory of workflows
elsewhere in the pipeline.” A scant three months later, on 11 October 2017,
OIOS audit 2017/104 on post-IPAS implementation detailed many of the same
unresolved issues as reported in audit 2017/002.
2. “It
may reasonably be questioned as to whether the General Assembly, without prior
discussion in and substantive debate by the Pension Board, is indeed able to
undertake a governance review of the structure of the Pension Board.”
Response: The Board is a subsidiary of the
General Assembly. The Assembly has the authority, without prior discussion or
debate in the Board, “to request the Secretary-General to entrust the Office of Internal Oversight
Services with conducting a comprehensive audit of the governance structure of
the UN Joint Staff Pension Fund Board, to
include a review of the checks and balances between the Board and the Pension
Fund leadership” (para. 8 of GA resolution A/RES/72/262). The FAFICS
president may address any concerns directly to the General Assembly.
3. “Under Fund operations, IPAS is
cited along with the need to improve processing times to avoid
continuing process delays, but 2.5 years after the implementation of IPAS,
these delays are largely a thing of the past.”
Response: “Delays are largely a thing of the
past” only for those who choose to believe the Fund’s definition of “backlog”,
which as OIOS audit 2017/002 points out in its Executive Summary, there were as
of 13 February 2017 thousands of outstanding cases as follows: Quote: “OIOS is of the view that these
recommendations cannot be closed because the Fund’s definition of “backlog” did
not include all types of outstanding cases. The audit showed that 305 Article
32 cases, 852 cases opened before 1 January 2014 that were ready to be
processed, and 554 cases assigned to the Pension Entitlements Section before 1
March 2016 were not included in the “backlog” reported by the Fund as of 1
March 2016 even though all three separation documents had been received for
these cases. In addition there were 4,091 outstanding recalculation and
revision cases which were not included in the “backlog” reported by the Fund.
Furthermore, of the 11,128 cases with incomplete documentation reported by the
Fund on 7 July 2016, there were 2,889 outstanding cases relating to former
staff members (i.e. inactive participants).”
4. “…there
was not a single report of missed payment for [existing retirees]
Response: Nowhere is it stated that the backlog was
about “missed payments for [existing retirees].” It was always about
unprecedented delays in payments for new retirees and staff separation cases,
survivors, and other beneficiaries.
5. “The previous year there had been a
positive preliminary evaluation of the CEO after four years.”
Response: There was indeed a positive preliminary
evaluation of the CEO conducted in 2015 by the bureau of the 62nd
session, based on the 2013-2014 performance period (see para. 375 of the 2016
Pension Board report (A/71/9)), the session at which some members of the Board,
including the FAFICS president attempted to push through an advance reappointment
of the CEO for five years. The evaluation appears to have been deliberately
based on the period before the role
of mismanagement in the Fund secretariat was documented in OIOS audit 2017/002
of the pension backlog (dated 13 February 2017). The same outdated performance evaluation
appears to have been considered at the Board’s 2017 session when a failed
attempt was again made to push through a five-year reappointment of the CEO.
6. “…it came as a surprise that the
representative of the United Nations Executive heads together with the
participant representatives on the United Nations SPC (of which the CCISUA
President is a member and leading critic of the Pension Fund, the CEO and
governance structure of the Pension Board) and a small minority of other Board
members opposed any extension [of the CEO’s contract].”
Response: That the Secretary-General’s
representatives on the Board, i.e., the UN Executive heads, stood with the UN
participant representatives on the issue of no reappointment of the CEO should
not have been a “surprise” to anyone on the Board. OIOS had duly documented in
its audit 2017/002 of 13 February 2017 the role of mismanagement in the backlog
in pension payments. Other reported mismanagement in the Fund secretariat, in
implementing IPAS and irregularities in contracts and procurement, were
subsequently borne out in OIOS audits 2017/104 dated 11 October 2017 and
2017/110 dated 31 October 2017.
The CCISUA
President, whom the FAFICS president characterizes as a “leading critic of the
Pension Fund, the CEO and governance structure of the Pension Board” heads an
organization that together with other UN staff associations, FICSA and UNISERV,
represent 110,000 participants of the Fund. CCISUA has stood firmly with the
other staff associations in representing the interests of their constituents (active
UN staff) against mismanagement in the Fund secretariat and lax oversight by
the Board, as borne out and documented in the reports of UN governing bodies
and OIOS audits. In doing so, and by default, the UN staff unions have filled
the vacuum left by FAFICS in effectively representing the overlapping interests
of UN retirees.
7. “…the participant representatives on the
UNSPC…wrote to [the Secretary-General] after the Board session on 28 August
2017 to urge him to ignore the recommendation of the Pension Board and
continued to push an anti-board, anti-CEO platform.”
Response: The UN participant representatives acted
for the health of our Fund and for safeguarding the vital interests of
their constituents. Again, the FAFICS president’s language reflects her
tendency to view criticism as subversion. The UN participant representatives,
who, at the Board’s 2017 session were pressured into a
consensus vote for a final three-year appointment for the CEO with oversight
provisions, on the understanding that they could register an objection in the
minutes, and were subsequently denied that opportunity, wrote to the
Secretary-General as follows (quote): “The Board was heavily divided on what recommendation to make
to you. The recommendation of three years with no possibility of reappointment
was a last-minute compromise to avoid a divisive vote. . . . the UN’s
management and participant representatives, representing two-thirds of the
Fund’s members, were against recommending any reappointment of the CEO”. Given that the Board had based its
evaluation of the CEO on the 2013-2014 performance period, the UN participant
representatives asked the Secretary-General to take into consideration information not considered in the evaluation,
regarding the role of mismanagement in the Fund. The
letter noted that their objection was based on reasons which included that: “The
CEO’s performance has been criticized in a spate of recent audits which raised
among other things: non-cooperation by the Fund’s management with auditors;
incorrect figures supplied to the actuaries resulting in an important actuarial
report having to be dropped; and false information provided to iSeek on the
size of the payment backlog.”
8. “Although
the Pension Board has sole authority for the appointment and renewal of the
CEO, the Secretary-General has the administrative function to issue the
contract…..”
Response: The FAFICS President implies that the
Secretary-General lacks any discretionary role in appointing or renewing the
CEO’s contract and that his sole function is to execute the wishes of the
Pension Board. The letter dated 7 December 2017 from the Chef de Cabinet to the
Board Chair rebuts this assertion as follows: “In this regard, the
Secretary-General holds the power of appointment of the Chief Executive Officer
of the Fund, pursuant to Article 101 of the Charter of the United Nations and
Article 7 of the Regulations of the Fund.”
9. “The
Secretary-General did [not issue] a probationary appointment [of the CEO]. Had
he done so, moreover, it would have been functionally inappropriate.”
Response: No one has stated that the
Secretary-General “issued a probationary appointment” of the CEO. However, as
the Chef de Cabinet states in her letter to the Pension Board Chair on 7
December 2017, “the Secretary-General holds the power of appointment of the
Chief Executive Officer of the Fund, pursuant to Article 101 of the Charter of
the United Nations and Article 7 of the Regulations of the Fund”. It was clearly within his prerogative had he
chosen to do so. The Secretary-General, as also stated in the 7 December 2017
letter from the Chef de Cabinet to the Pension Board Chair, accepted the Board’s
recommendation of a three-year reappointment, with the CEO’s continuation to be reconsidered in light of a further
recommendation by the Board, subject to review of his performance, i.e., in
effect placing him on probation. Quote: “Therefore, while I wish to advise
that the Secretary-General has accepted the recommendation of the board for the
reappointment of the Chief Executive Officer for a second term of three years,
he will nevertheless reconsider the continuation of such appointment after
taking into consideration a further recommendation by the Board next summer. In
this regard, the Secretary-General expects that the Pension Board will closely
monitor the performance of the Chief Executive Officer, and, following its
upcoming sixty-fifth session in July, will report to him on the progress made
by the Chief Executive Officer in addressing the performance issues of the
Fund. . . Consequently, in light of the
requested further recommendation by the Board on the continuation of the
appointment of the Chief Executive Officer, the Secretary-General reserves the
option to take appropriate action at that time.”
10. “… communications….are written and sent by
a disgruntled and unprincipled individual who has no standing in FAFICS, the
Pension Fund, or any other part of the United Nations system, and represents no
one.”
Response: As stated above, the FAFICS president’s
uses terms such as “disgruntled” and “unprincipled” to disparage and discredit
anyone who questions or criticizes her actions and manipulates information so
as to depict the statements of others as “spurious” (false). Moreover, she
should state the “standing” she believes is required in order to have the right
to share and comment on the reports of UN governing bodies, internal audits,
and other documents pertaining to the health of our Fund, beyond that of a
retired UN staff member (with 37 years of service), a UNJSPF member for 46
years, and a dues-paying member of
AFICS/NY in good standing. She should also state where and when I have claimed
to represent anyone. The FAFICS website should reflect a fraction of the
transparency of the pension blog, which has meticulously documented all reports
and other relevant communications relating to the Fund since the beginning of
2015.
11. “FAFICS has continued to lend its support
to the CEO and I continue to be viciously attacked as if we were purposely and
perversely supporting an official we knew to be incompetent. Surely our
knowledge and experience of what is truly transpiring in the Fund and how the
CEO has been operating would not permit us to follow such a course.”
Response: “Lend its support” does not adequately
describe the FAFICS president’s demonstrated unconditional support for the CEO including
(i) writing an email to OIOS on 1 June 2016 discouraging the audit of the
backlog in pension payments which has caused untold suffering to new retirees
and other beneficiaries; (ii) pushing for his advance reappointment in 2016
based on an outdated performance evaluation; and again for a renewed five year
term in 2017, while disregarding the accumulated information contained in the
reports of UN governing bodies and OIOS audit 2017/002 concerning the role of
mismanagement in the Fund.
Regarding her
claim that she’s “viciously attacked” see my response (10) above. “Our
knowledge and experience of what is truly transpiring” is obtuse language indicating
that either a) the FAFICS president believes that she and her cohorts are privy
to knowledge that contradicts what the rest of us are reading in the reports of
UN governing bodies and OIOS audits; or b) that her own dearly held personal
views are all that count.
12. “It is our
considered opinion that IPAS has so far been largely successful with the
exception of some unfortunate delays during the first year of its rollout, delays
which have now been largely corrected.”
Response: The FAFICS president appears to believe
that “our considered opinion” takes precedence over OIOS audit 2017/104 on
post-IPAS implementation that directly contradicts reports made by the CEO to
the Pension Board in 2016 and 2017 that the system was working successfully. It
also contradicts a largely positive report from July 2016 by
PraceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) on IPAS implementation and other issues which the
CEO presented to the Board. Among the OIOS
audit’s findings are that project costs of the system have more than doubled;
weaknesses in the system have increased manual processing; the system and its
infrastructure may be susceptible to security breaches; and a majority of
top-priority benefit types (survivor, disability, and reinstatement benefits)
were not included in testing of the system before it was launched.
13. “…we would
caution you to take with a big grain of salt the continuing false reports of
thousands of unpaid widows and orphans…”
Response: Nowhere has it been stated that there
are “thousands of unpaid widows and orphans”. Instead what has been reported
accurately, is that there are thousands
of unpaid beneficiaries remaining, including widows and orphans.
14. “The same
UNSPC member is already campaigning in the Board against inclusion of FAFICS on
the selection committee and the reasons are obvious – FAFICS will not agree to
the ongoing and undeserved vilification of the Pension Fund and the CEO which
have been so personally and institutionally damaging.”
Response: The reasons are indeed obvious – that
the FAFICS president’s performance and record to date demonstrate that she cannot
be relied upon to act in a fair and unbiased manner. In referring to “ongoing
and undeserved vilification of the Pension Fund and the CEO” the FAFICS
president appears to consider information contained in the reports of UN
governing bodies and OIOS audits as vendettas against the Fund leadership and
Board and as a personal affront to her, and masks her agenda behind the charge that
transparency is “personally and institutionally damaging.”
15. “…some of
you have said that FAFICS should provide copies on its website of various
reports such as those of ACABQ, the Board of Auditors and OIOS. We would point
out that all of these reports are publicly available on the UN.org website
where they originate. FAICS has limited administrative resources…..”
Response: The FAFICS president’s actions in systematically
withholding, manipulating and selectively sharing information, both in her
current position and as president of AFICS/NY, has nothing to do with “limited
administrative resources” and everything to do with her determination to limit
transparency by strictly control the flow of information, and suppress
criticism. The FAFICS website, and the AFICS/NY website noticeably include only
Fund newsletters, AFICS and FAFICS communications (to, but not from, her
constituents), and none of the relevant General Assembly resolutions, reports
of UN governing bodies or OIOS audit reports.
Throughout her
“update”, the FAFICS president attempts to distort information, confuse her
readers, and deflect attention away from the substantive issues at hand.
I urge FAFICS
members and associate members to resist being distracted by distortion of the essential
facts: As a result of problems besetting both sides of the Fund as detailed in two
General Assembly resolutions (A/RES/71/265 and A/RES/72/262), reports of the
Board of Auditors (A/71/5.Add/16 and A/72/5/Add.16) ACABQ reports (A/71/621 and
72/7/Add.23), and OIOS audits (2017/002, 2017/104 and 2017/110), the
Secretary-General decided to replace his Representative for Investments, and to
reappoint the CEO for a final three-year term while making his continuation
subject to performance monitoring, in effect, placing him on probation; and the
General Assembly has “Requested the Secretary-General to entrust the Office of
Internal Oversight Services with conducting a comprehensive audit of the governance structure of the UN
Joint Staff Pension Fund Board, to
include a review of the checks and balances between the Board and the Pension
Fund leadership”.
Over the past
three years plus, the FAFICS president has played a key role in actions with
the potential to negatively affect the health of our Fund, including: (i) supporting increased autonomy for the CEO in
staff-management, financial and procurement matters; (ii) participating in evaluating
the CEO’s performance positively and pushing for advance renewal of his
contract in 2016 and again in 2017, without reference to information of which
she was certainly aware concerning the role of mismanagement in the Fund
secretariat, borne out in reports of UN governing bodies and OIOS audits
2017/02, 2017/104, and 2017/110; (iii) writing to OIOS on 2 June 2016
discouraging an audit of the backlog in pension payments which caused untold
suffering to new retirees, beneficiaries and survivors, in which she questioned
the need for and timing of the audit, the definition of “backlog”, described
the reported delays as “anecdotal”, and lamented
the “noise from [the staff unions that] has clouded the issue and
served only to spread fear and anger”;
(iv) failing to consulted FAFICS members about positions taken at the Pension
Board; (v) consistently dismissing concerns expressed by her constituents; including,
as president of AFICS/NY, declining to hold consultations when requested, in
writing, under the bylaws; (v) manipulating information, attempting to silence
dissent, and publicly disparaging her critics as a way to discredit them.
Indeed, in this
“update” the FAFICS president maligns the head of the Coordinating Committee
for International Staff Unions and Associations (CCISUA), and the UN
participant representatives to the Pension Board of which he’s a member. She expresses “surprise” at the action of the
representative of the UN Executive heads (the
Secretary-General’s representatives on the Board) in standing with the UN
participant representatives in opposing any reappointment of the CEO. Moreover, she questions the
Secretary-General’s authority to appoint the CEO; and the General Assembly’s
authority to request “a comprehensive audit of the governance structure of the [Board]
to include a review of the checks and balances between the Board and the
Pension Fund”.
Many of the
developments initiated by UN governing bodies and the Secretary-General in
recent weeks have been positive. Nonetheless, progress will depend on the good
faith efforts of those in positions of authority and trust to ensure proper
implementation.
In summary, the
FAFICS president has failed time and again to demonstrate the essential
qualities of impartiality, transparency, discipline and temperament required
for effectively carrying out the functions of the office.
The FAFICS
president will not voluntarily relinquish her position. For the sake of the
continued health of the Fund, I urge FAFICS members and associated members to independently
assess the facts and take the necessary action to ensure that FAFICS has the
caliber of leadership that enables it to assume its important role in
effectively representing the interests of UN retirees worldwide.
Sincerely,
Loraine
Rickard-Martin
Member, AFICS/NY
http://unpension.blogspot.com/
c.c. Members of
the Pension Board
8
January 2018
Dear
Colleagues,
I have
been awaiting the outcome on decisions taken on matters of interest and concern
regarding the Pension Fund and am pleased to be able finally to update you in a
comprehensive way.
RESOLUTION
72/262
The
General Assembly adopted on December 24, 2017 Resolution 72/262, a draft
advance copy of which you should have received by now, but is also attached to
this letter for easy reference. Although last year was a so-called budget year,
the resolution did not restrict itself, as had been customary, to budget
matters and the Board of Auditors report. Instead, it extended its focus to
include other matters such as investments and in particular, a call for a
comprehensive review of the governance structure.
The
section on the Board of Auditors reflects that Board’s very significant
issuance of an unqualified audit opinion on the financial statements, although
it did call for some improvements in internal controls, timely processing
rates, creation of a client grievance mechanism and faster implementation of
recommendations. The unqualified opinion from the external auditors is a clear
and important response to critics who continue to impugn the Fund’s probity.
It is
regrettable that misinformation with respect to OIOS reports, which are issued
by internal auditors, was later disseminated by some UNSPC participant
representatives, requiring the Chair of the Pension Board’s Audit Committee to
recall that the Audit Committee had the delegated responsibility for dealing
with internal and external audit issues, stressing that the audit process did
not end with the issuance of the reports, as the Committee monitors
implementation of the recommendations and mediates in cases where the auditors
and managers disagree on findings and recommendations.
FAFICS appreciates the work of both the external and internal auditors, along
with the work of the Pension Board’s Audit Committee, and encourages the CEO
and the Secretary-General to act expeditiously on appropriate audit
recommendations.
The
core element in the resolution was the proposed budget for the biennium 2018-2019
as recommended by the UNJSPB. The Fund budget approved by the GA for 2018-2019
amounts to $195,259,800 (after recosting). This is equivalent to an increase of
$10.2 million being 5.6 per cent in real terms. The General Assembly chose this
year to make its own determinations on future budget levels and merely noted
the ACABQ recommendations, while approving a lower level of resources than had
been sought by the UNJSPF. It was also lower than the ACABQ recommendations.
The cut in the proposed 2018-2019 budget is estimated at some $3.6 million
being 1.9 per cent of requested resources. Apart from the across-the-board 5
per cent non-post cut mandated by the resolution, adjustments to the requested
staffing table were also made. Just 4 of 9 recommended new posts were approved;
5 were denied including 4 for Client Services and Outreach (1 D-1, 1 P:-5 and 2
P-3s). One P-3 Benefits Officer post for Operations was also denied.
Even
though the revised budget represents a real increase of 5.6 per cent at the
same time that the regular budget of the United Nations is being downsized,
FAFICS regrets the cuts because they will hurt the client service and
communications proposals made by the Board. The cuts in client servicing
proposals are especially disappointing to FAFICS, particularly now when the
Fund has been experiencing an increased caseload of retirees, increased
longevity (with the related problems of infirmity, dementia, widowhood, etc.)
and when client services should clearly be augmented. The paradigm has shifted
with the increased numbers of retirees and the days of minimal client servicing
costs are long gone. That is why FAFICS has strongly and consistently advocated
for the strengthening of Client Services over the years and regrets the outcome
in this regard.
Regarding
the call for a comprehensive review of the governance structure referred to
earlier, we would advise that the wording calls for careful attention as the
resolution refers to the governance structure of the Board, not the Fund as a
whole. It may reasonably be questioned as to whether the General Assembly,
without prior discussion in and substantive debate by the Pension Board, is
indeed able to undertake a governance review of the structure of the Pension
Board. FAFICS will be vigilant in this regard and resist attempts, as already
articulated by some, to side-line FAFICS, restrict the influence of the
specialized agencies and centralize control under the UN Secretary-General.
Under
Fund operations, IPAS is cited along with the need to improve processing times
to avoid continuing process delays, but 2.5 years after the implementation of
IPAS, these delays are largely a thing of the past. With respect to the
paragraphs on expenditures, vacancies and service centers for Africa and Asia,
FAFICS welcomes and endorses the thrust of the resolution in these matters.
Insofar
as investments are concerned, it is the Secretary-General alone who has
responsibility for them, which is why mention of his key fiduciary role, lest
we forget, is included in the resolution. The relevant paragraphs in the
resolution endorse other established positions regarding rates of return,
trading activities, exchange rates, external fund managers, advisers and
composition of the Investments Committee. No reference was made to the Deloitte
study as the results were not presented to the General Assembly in accordance
with established practice to focus on budget matters in odd calendar years.
Nevertheless, FAFICS will expect the RSG to report on progress achieved at the
July 2018 session of the Board.
EXTENSION
OF THE MANDATE OF THE CEO
As we
already reported last fall, you are aware that at last summer’s Pension Board
session extension of the contract of the CEO for a second five-year mandate was
on the agenda. The previous year there had been a positive preliminary
evaluation of the CEO after four years. Although the five-year extension was
unanimously supported by the representatives of the Governing Bodies, it came
as a surprise that the representative of the United Nations Executive Heads
together with the participant representatives on the United Nations SPC (of
which the CCISUA President is a member and leading critic of the Pension Fund,
the CEO and governance structure of the Pension Board), and a small minority of
other Board members opposed any extension. The Board eventually came to a consensus
for a three year extension. Subsequently, the participant representatives on
the UNSPC, in violation of the consensus to which they were party, began to
campaign against it on social media and elsewhere and to actively lobby the
Secretary-General not to extend the CEO; reportedly led by the three
Headquarters-based participant representatives, they wrote to him after the
Board session on 28 August 2017 to urge him to ignore the recommendation of the
Pension Board and continued to push an anti-Board, anti-CEO platform.
Although
the Pension Board has sole authority for the appointment and renewal of the
CEO, the Secretary-General has the administrative function to issue the
contract, which he eventually did at the eleventh hour on 29 December 2017 for a
three year term, as per the Board’s consensus. Attached to this note is a
letter sent to the Secretary-General by Participants Representatives Pension
Board Members objecting to the tactics employed by this increasingly unpopular
minority group.
The
Secretary-General’s action on extending the CEO was so badly received by some
members of the UNSPC that they began a new campaign through a surrogate
contending that the extension was “probationary” and falsely claiming that the
Secretary-General told the Pension Board to “do its job”. The Secretary-General
did not say that, nor did he issue a probationary appointment. Had he done so,
moreover, it would have been functionally inappropriate. While there is every
reason to monitor the performance of senior officials, it would be
counter-productive to limit their ability to function by labelling their
appointments probationary, which is why there is no precedent for such a
mechanism. Such a policy would reduce initiative and a preparedness to take
reasonable risks at a time when innovation and commitment are needed. The
UNJSPB will continue to fulfil its responsibilities of overseeing the work of
the CEO consistent with the decision it took to recommend a three year
extension. FAFICS would not like to see additional operating constraints placed
upon the CEO who should be free to serve the Fund to the best of his ability.
MISINFORMATION
AND DISTORTIONS
At this
point, a word is in order about communications which some of you may have
recently received. As you know, for the past several years, FAFICS has for the
most part deliberately ignored the malicious and ill-founded assertions about
the Pension Fund and its CEO that have been circulating on social media.
Indeed, both the Fund and the CEO have been subject to a trial by social media
that is unprecedented in its vitriol and ad hominem attacks. When asked,
although by now most of you are wise enough not to trust the messenger, we have
been advising you to ignore these spurious communications. Now, because FAFICS
members have been contacted, we would simply advise you to continue to ignore
them. They are written and sent by a disgruntled and unprincipled individual
who has no standing in FAFICS, the Pension Fund, or any other part of the
United Nations system, and represents no one. The chief function of this
self-appointed individual is to act as a surrogate for some members of the
UNSPC, its leader in particular, and is adept at manipulating facts in such a
way that they bear little relation to reality. Their joint campaign has been
entirely negative with no thought to the harm being caused not only personally,
but, more importantly, institutionally.
Because
FAFICS has continued to lend its support to the CEO, FAFICS and I personally
continue to be viciously attacked as if we were purposely and perversely
supporting an official we knew to be incompetent. Surely, our knowledge and
experience of what is truly transpiring in the Fund and how the CEO has been
operating would not permit us to follow such a course, so we would simply
remind these critics that no one is perfect and what matters in the end is
deliverables. It is our considered opinion that IPAS has so far been largely
successful with the exception of some unfortunate delays during the first year
of its rollout, delays which have now been largely corrected. We would also
recall that the priority of IPAS for the first month of its rollout was the
seamless continuation of the payment of pensions to existing retirees; this was
a success and there was not a single report of missed payment for this group.
Finally, we would caution you to take with a big grain of salt the continuing
false reports of thousands of unpaid widows and orphans, a number being put
forward by these same critics and one which is patently absurd. We would only
say in this respect that in the five years pre-IPAS, the annual rate of
widow/widower awards was somewhere between 120 and 160, and given those
numbers, it would be clearly impossible to have accumulated “thousands” of
unpaid widows since then.
In a
related matter, some of you may have heard that the Deputy CEO has decided not
to seek a second mandate and agreed to retire after the next Board meeting in
July instead of in June as he had originally wanted. FAFICS appreciates that he
put the Fund ahead of his own personal plans and preferences by agreeing to
stay on and see the Board through its next session. The Chair of the Board has
already started to put a selection committee together which will include
FAFICS, as was the case in the past for the selection of both the DCEO and the
CEO. You will not be surprised to hear that the same UNSPC member is already
campaigning in the Board against the inclusion of FAFICS on the selection
committee and the reasons are obvious---FAFICS cannot and will not agree to the
ongoing and undeserved vilification of the Pension Fund and the CEO which have
been so personally and institutionally damaging.
Lastly,
some of you have said that FAFICS should provide copies on its website of
various reports such as those of ACABQ, the Board of Auditors and OIOS. We
would point out that all of these reports are publicly available on the UN.org website where they originate.
FAFICS has limited administrative resources, so we would urge you to look for
the reports you need on the UN website and if you don’t find them, contact the
FAFICS Secretary for copies. In closing, we would suggest that you draw your membership’s
attention to the December 2017 Newsletter of the Pension Fund which contains a
wealth of accurate information.
In
closing I would like to wish you, your members and families renewed good wishes
for the coming year which FAFICS faces with optimism and continuing confidence
in our shared mission to maintain and protect retiree entitlements.
Sincerely,
Linda
Saputelli
President FAFICS
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Letter to the Secretary-General from Specialized Agency Representatives to the Pension Board
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President FAFICS
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Letter to the Secretary-General from Specialized Agency Representatives to the Pension Board
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