UN Pension Board Chair: Lacking an "appropriate tone of integrity and ethical values", 23 August 2018

Pension Board Chair: "Our Fund is under attack from without from, frankly, nutcases.....".

Or how not to "set the appropriate tone with regard to integrity and ethical values" as called for by the OIOS governance audit of the Pension Board under GA resolution 72/265.





This is the Pension Board that, under this Chair's leadership, decided to "refer OIOS to the UN’s Independent Audit Advisory Committee on apparent grounds of unprofessionalism", a decision about which the UN participant representatives noted in their 14 August 2018 message:

"We felt OIOS had carried out its work correctly as per the mandate assigned to it by the General Assembly. We did not believe that the Fund should engage in a political campaign against OIOS nor take measures to undermine its authority."

UNJSPF: Broadcast to WFP staff from the Chair of the UN Joint Staff Pension Board, John Martin Levins, WFP

Quote “Our Fund is also under attack from without from, frankly, nutcases, who intend for their own twisted purposes to create a narrative of a “Fund in crisis”. Unfortunately, it is also under attack from the inside by similar people in cahoots with the external nutters. The Fund is not perfect. It can improve many things just like WFP can; I will be making sure it does. If you hear a different narrative, please be skeptical. Ignore the haters. Check in with me.”

Perhaps the "nutcases" the Board Chair refers to includes the General Assembly, the Board of Auditors, OIOS, ACABQ, the UN Staff Unions, the SG's representatives on the Board, the SG" and other persons and bodies that have been diligently working to uncover and address serious problems in our Fund.

Note that this is the Pension Board that reportedly, under the leadership of the new Chair,  BOOED a UN participant representative, and by extension OIOS,  as she commended OIOS on the audit. OIOS participated by videoconference in the Pension Board meeting held in Rome from 26 July to 3 August 2018, to discuss the OIOS governance audit called for by para. 8 of GA resolution 72/265 that has found conflicts of interest and even appearances of collusion between the Board and the Fund management.

Note also that this is also the Pension Board under his chairmanship about which the UN participant representatives in their 14 August 2018 message, reported: "So while important decisions were taken by the Board, we do not believe all of them will benefit the current and future beneficiaries of the Fund. For this we made sure to put our disagreement with those decisions on record; our positions are explained below."

One of those decisions of the Board was to "refer OIOS to the UN’s Independent Audit Advisory Committee on apparent grounds of unprofessionalism". The UN participant representatives noted:
"We felt OIOS had carried out its work correctly as per the mandate assigned to it by the General Assembly. We did not believe that the Fund should engage in a political campaign against OIOS nor take measures to undermine its authority."

it is no wonder that the OIOS governance audit includes in the summary of its key findings that "the Board needs to strengthen its governance in critical areas such as (v) setting the appropriate tone with regard to integrity and ethical values".

Judging this by this display, we could add the need for dignity and common sense. The governance audit was called for in the first place because of evidence of shortcomings in the Pension Board's oversight of the Fund. If this is an example of the level of responsibility and accountability in the Board leadership, there's more work ahead to bring about necessary change than we ever imagined.