QUOTE from the Representative of the Secretary-General at today’s UNJSPF town hall, 3 April 2024:
“It was unfortunate that these four staff members were separated … [through a] complete independent investigation outside from the Pension Fund .. We have not experienced any…impact on the operations of the Fund...”
There's a 2-minute video (too large to post on the blog) and an unofficial transcript (below) of the RSG’s (Pedro Guazo’s response to the question submitted in advance by a number of us about the firing of four whistleblowers from the Office of Investment Management (OIM) and reportedly, indications of more terminations to come, and the impact on the Fund’s sustainability.
RECALL CCISUA’S LETTER to the Secretary-General in which it was noted that the senior investment officers, were fired for reasons of “blowing the whistle on what OIOS later found to be a toxic work environment”. in contravention of SG directives on “Protection against retaliation for reporting misconduct and for cooperating with duly authorized audits and investigations.”
http://unpension.blogspot.com/2024/02/un-pension-fund-ccisua-letter-to.html
HERE’S THE QUESTION we posed to the RSG prior to the town hall.
http://unpension.blogspot.com/2024/03/un-pension-fund-firing-of.html
If after watching the video of the RSG's response, or reading the transcript (below) you have questions, as I do about the RSG’s denial of any involvement of the Fund’s management in the firing of whistleblowers in OIM, please join me in sending the following question directly to his email inbox: Email: pedro.guazo@unoim.org
SEND THIS QUESTION:
Dear RSG,
Your response at today's town hall to the question about the firing of four whistleblowers --OIM senior investment officers – and reported indications of more terminations to come, as stated in CCISUA’s letter to the Secretary-General, dated 21 February 2024 --both regarding your involvement, and the impact on the fund’s sustainability, raises further questions.
http://unpension.blogspot.com/2024/02/un-pension-fund-ccisua-letter-to.html
If, as you say, you believe that the firing of these senior investment officers is ‘unfortunate’, and you were in no way involved, then you must go on record as supporting CCISUA’s request to the Secretary-General to reconsider the decision to terminate these whistleblowers, for the sake of justice and transparency in the UN, and the sustainability of our Fund.
Otherwise, your response to this issue, on its face, makes a mockery of UN values and principles and the ‘transformational’ culture that you profess to foster in the Fund.
Signed (your name), UNJSPF member/beneficiary
.
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TRANSCRIPT OF RSG’S RESPONSE: “Let me first take the first part [of the question]. And probably, some of you that are familiar with the UN Secretariat’s working methods, you will understand. But a little bit more discreetly for some of you who are not part of the UN Secretariat. As you might know , , whenever there is a presumptive action that a staff member have misconducted or have an undisciplined event, it becomes a complete independent investigation outside from he Pension Fund. So we have an organization called the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), equivalent of internal auditors and investigators. They take control of the investigation. We, the management of the UN Pension Fund, are not involved in that. OIOS , as we call it, do their investigation and pass it to the Administrative Law Division in the UN Secretariat ,and between them, they gather all the evidence and they decide what is the sanction that they have to put to staff members. Of course , staff members ,they always have the right to appeal those decisions, and only after the whole process -- and again, it's conducted independently and externally from the Pension Fund --only when those process is completed ,we will all know --including ourselves --we will only know what were the reasons why these four staff members were separated, not before that.
Now, the second part of the question is, as you can imagine, it was unfortunate that these four staff members were separated in the process, in the period of two years, but, ah, given that we are adequately staffed, we have ISO certification of business continuity, and we have not experienced any impact on the operations of the Fund ,and as I showed you in the previous slide, .the culture of the organization becomes stronger every year.”
