"Don’t Risk our Multi-Billion Dollar Pension Fund in Wall Street, Warn UN Staffers
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 18 2022 (IPS) - The United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund (UNJSPF), which is expected to provide retirement, death, disability and related benefits for staff, upon cessation of their services– has a staggering portfolio amounting to over $81.5 billion ranking far, far ahead of the UN’s annual budget of $3.1 billion and its average peacekeeping budget of over $6.4 billion.
The thousands of UN retirees and their beneficiaries, numbering over 71,000 at last count, who depend on their pensions for economic survival, are relentlessly protective of the Fund—while protesting all attempts at risky investments.
The Coordinating Committee for International Staff Unions and Associations of the UN system (CCISUA), which represents over 60,000 staffers worldwide, is protesting a new proposed plan to “outsource a large part of the pension fund’s investments to Wall Street”....
The Secretary-General is proceeding with the outsourcing despite strong concerns expressed at the February meeting of the pension board, despite a letter of protest from CCISUA (https://www.staffcoordinatingcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/PF-protest-letter.pdf) and despite the UN’s own Board of Auditors noting that the fund is not able to effectively evaluate its external managers.
In 2007, one year before the global financial crisis and the collapse of many financial institutions, former Secretary-General Kofi Annan considered outsourcing to Wall Street. But he wisely changed course following staff protests and kept our fund safe, says the petition.
“By handing our pension fund to Wall Street in these financially turbulent times, it risks becoming the victim of a short-term, greed-is-good bonus culture that has little regard for the welfare of our staff and retirees around the world and little regard for the ethical values of the UN”, says the petition titled “Secretary-General Antonio Guterres: Don’t hand our UN pension fund to Wall Street.”
“By signing this petition, you call on the Secretary-General, to once again stop the outsourcing of our pension fund and keep its management in-house. Please share this with your colleagues across the UN and specialized agencies”..."
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