Lowell Flanders elected to the AFICS/NY Governing Board

Congratulations, Lowell Flanders, on winning election to the AFICS/NY Governing Board! (Results were announced yesterday, 25 June 2018, at the AFICS/NY annual assembly. See his mission statement posted below on the blog on 19 April 2018). We wish you all success in this endeavor.

Calling for an end to complicity of UN retiree representatives, 25 June 2018

Open letter to the AFICS/NY president, members of the Governing Board and to AFICS/NY members, 25 June 2018

Dear colleagues,

Subject: Calling for an end to complicity of UN retiree representatives 

Today, on the occasion of the AFICS/NY annual assembly, we recall that while the issue of chronic underperformance in investments was addressed by the Secretary-General in his appointment of his new Representative for Investments in 2017 and that we must remain vigilant, serious issues related to the Fund Secretariat remain unresolved.

Since 2014 when concerns arose about the leadership of the Fund Secretariat, there have been General Assembly resolutions, internal and external audits, and ACABQ reports[1], that collectively confirm issues of mismanagement in the Fund Secretariat, including in the implementation of the new IT system in 2015; procurement irregularities; massive understatement of an unprecedented delay in pension payments to new retirees, separated staff, and survivors; and severely inadequate client servicing.

Finally, after years of insisting that the backlog in pension payments consisted of a mere few hundred cases, the Fund acknowledged in its March 2018 newsletter that the backlog consists of 15,000 cases related to retirees and separated staff, and survivors.[2]  Yet, selective sharing and control of the flow of information by our retiree representatives continued, as indicated by a letter from the president of AFICS Canada to his constituents dated 7 March 2018.[3]

Attempts to stall vital UN pension fund audit and how the Fund invests your money, 13 June 2018

UPDATE FROM UN STAFF UNIONS: ATTEMPTS TO STALL VITAL PENSION FUND AUDIT + HOW THE FUND INVESTS YOUR MONEY

From: broadcast-unhq
Sent: Wednesday, 13 June, 2018 10:26 AM
To: HQ_NY_Secretariat; UN_Funds; DPKO; OAH%UNHQ
Subject: UPDATE FROM UN STAFF UNIONS: Attempts to stall vital pension fund audit + how the fund invests your money

Dear Colleagues,

We would like to update you on important developments at the pension fund.

Audit raises serious questions on how our fund is governed and led

You may remember that last fall we called for a review of how the pension fund is governed, having seen first hand the July 2017 board session. The General Assembly heard our concerns and requested OIOS to conduct a comprehensive review of the governance structure and related process of the pension fund’s Board.

OIOS swung into operation and the draft audit has been shared with members of the Board.

While its contents are confidential for the moment, we look forward to it addressing the issues that we have brought to OIOS’ attention, such as:

· conflicts of interest between Board members and the fund’s CEO;
· A Board that meets just once a year, with no meetings of its Standing Committee that is supposed to meet to act in between;
· lack of direct representation for retirees;
· a weak performance evaluation system for the CEO;
· lack of transparency and spurious confidentiality rules that prevent Board members from seeking external expertise;
· retaliation against pension fund staff; and
· unjustified increase in senior level positions.