UN Pension Fund: Janice Dunn Lee on accountability and whistleblower protection, June 14, 2019

Janice Dunn Lee, Acting CEO responsible for managing the Secretariat of the $66 billion UN Pension Fund, sends a message in a Facebook comment (FCUNS Facebook group) about her views on accountability and whistleblower protection. She's reportedly a candidate for the (falsely advertised) post of CEO/Pension Benefits Administrator. The Fund has been suffering from management and oversight problems for years. We know that the Pension Board's succession planning committee, in picking her for the job, noted that she had limited technical and financial pension experience. (That was typical UN understatement). If this is an example of her management style, there could be much worse in the Fund's future. 

See below screenshot of her post and the video that she posted at 12.15 am on June 13, 2019, on FCUNS, in a comment responding to the article on 'The UN: where whistleblower protection and accountability are missing in action" posted on the blog on June 9, 2019: npension.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-un-where-accountability-and.html

The UN: Where accountability and whistleblower protection are missing in action, 9 June 2019

In its  “Comprehensive audit of the governance structure and related processes of the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Board” the United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) found several issues of mismanagement and conflicts of interest in the Fund Secretariat under the leadership of its former Chief Executive Officer, Sergio Arvizu, including that he had retaliated against three staff members. https://undocs.org/A/73/341

The UN Ethics Office established that retaliation had occurred and the UN Administration accepted (in writing) its findings in all three cases, and its recommendation of referral for possible disciplinary action.

The same UN Administration that determined that Arvizu (who was at the level of Assistant-Secretary-General) was guilty of retaliation had also formally defined retaliation as misconduct only a year earlier (para. 3.5(d) of Administrative Instruction ST/AI/2017/1).  https://undocs.org/ST/AI/2017/1

Therefore, by its own definition, the UN Administration had determined that Arvizu had committed misconduct. In the current UN environment of frenzied reform and accountability, one might assume that he would be held accountable. That was not the case.

UN Pension Fund : Loopholes and double standards in disability awards? 9 June 2019

A senior position at the UN can be an attractive prospect: nice salary, travel, and benefits including membership in the UN's pension fund, one of the few remaining final salary schemes, i.e., benefits received on retirement are based on earnings and length of membership in the scheme.

But the system reportedly includes loopholes that work for the benefit of some while imposing onerous costs on the Fund. At the same time, the system also penalizes others. 

Former Chief Executive Officer of the Pension Fund Secretariat, Sergio Arvizu, whose five-year contract ended in December 2017, fought hard for a second and final five-year term. This would have taken him to his normal retirement age, entitling him to a pension of some $91,000 per year.

Instead, after successive internal audits revealed mismanagement, conflicts of interest, and procurement irregularities under his leadership, Arvizu received a three-year reappointment. This would have meant leaving two years before the normal retirement age and receiving a reduced early pension.

The day after he received the bad news about his shortened term, Arvizu went on sick leave.  A year and a half later, he received a disability benefit through the International Atomic Energy Agency, where he never worked a day, instead of through the UN Staff Pension Committee..

As the disability benefit is based on the pension that he would have received had he worked until the normal retirement age, Arvizu can now look forward to about $85,000 a year, instead of $65,000 if he had completed the three-year contract.