CCISUA briefing on pension matters: it's our Fund (we own it)-- get involved and act for change, 11 October 2016

CCISUA Bureau (Coordinating Committee of International Staff Unions and Associations of the United Nations System) briefing on UN Pension Fund matters,

Friday, 7 October 2016, 1.15 to 2.45 pm, Conference room 11

Present: Ian Richards, CCISUA President, Egor Ovtcharenko, CCISUA Vice-President, Conditions of Service, Barbara Tavora-Jainchill, UN Staff Union President

UN staff federations took their concerns about moves to privatize the Fund to the annual Pension Board meeting held in Vienna in July 2016. Last Friday, CCISUA briefed staff at UN HQ New York on issues of continuing concern, including chronically elusive information about the extent and status of the protracted backlog in pension payments; fractious staff management relations in the Fund; retaliation against Fund staff; investment underperformance; lack of oversight and control over investment outsourcing; issues of competency and oversight in the Board coupled with increased secrecy in its activities; a need for major structural changes to preserve the health of the Fund; and some ways that the owners/stakeholder can help to bring about necessary change.

Tsunamis of management practice, not natural disasters, beset the UN Pension Fund, 8 September 2016

Comment (posted on the Passblue website) in response to article 'Skeptics Still Question the Status of the UN's $54 Billion Pension Fund (link below):

In “Skeptics Still Question the Status of the UN’s $54 Billion Pension Fund” (link below), Susan Manuel does a credible job exposing the problems roiling the Fund, but in the telling, assigns accountability nowhere and to no one. First, the title is somewhat curious: “Skeptics still question….”. Skepticism, as in “inclined to question or doubt all accepted opinions” can be a useful trait. However, “still” implies that in the face of irrefutable evidence, some of us persist in our stubborn refusal to accept truths in front of our noses.

Rather, what the skeptics among us don’t accept is “received wisdom”, i.e., “knowledge or information that people generally believe is true, although in fact it is often false”. And we know that much of what’s proffered as truth about the Fund is false, because there’s copious evidence to the contrary.

UN Pension Fund - New member service, 5 September 2016

UN Pension Blog received this message yesterday in an email from a retired UN colleague:

UNJSPF Member Self Service

I have been complaining for more than 18 years that the Pension Fund website did not allow participants and beneficiaries access to see their gross pension amount as well as ASHI (After Service Health Insurance) deductions, etc. As of a  few days ago, the UNJSPF now offers this service. 

In order to access the service, one logs on to the UNJSPF site, click on 'Beneficiary' or 'Participant' and click on 'Member Self Service' on the top left side of the screen. One must get a new number (as per instructions) and log on! 

Pension matters: Retirement funds searching for better returns, 26 August 2016

Canada quietly treads radical path on pensions

Retirement funds are pushing beyond bonds and stocks in search of better returns

Among the assets controlled by Canadian pension funds are lottery operators, including Camelot; airports and toll roads including the Chicago Skyway; and vast property portfolios in New York and London © Getty Images; Bloomberg

YESTERDAY 

by: Mary Childs and John Authers August 25, 2016

More on investment performance and Fund health, August 17, 2016

MORE ON INVESTMENT PERFORMANCE AND FUND HEALTH: Quote from CCISUA article posted below:  "The previous Chair of the Fund assured staff that the Fund owed its healthy position in part to contributions made by participants being twice the current payments to retirees. In reality, as confirmed by the annual report, contributions are around the same level as payments. In time, as retirees exceed contributors, payments may exceed contributions. It is not a time to be complacent.

Looking ahead, it is clear that the Fund is facing a number of challenges in terms of leadership, governance, investment performance and its ability to pay retirees. In addition, further evidence has come to light regarding:

the UN’s reduced oversight of the Fund’s investments; and
the inability of the Fund’s auditors, more used to auditing governments and international organizations, to understand the unique challenges of a pension fund."

UN Pension Fund: Payment delays continue amid outsourcing of investments, August 17, 2016

UN PENSION FUND NEWS: PAYMENT DELAYS CONTINUE AMID OUTSOURCING OF INVESTMENTS

EXCERPT:

READ ARTICLE HERE:

http://www.ccisua.org/2016/08/17/3732/

Pension Fund - Lack of common sense solutions cause delays in paying new retirees, August 14, 2016

Post on Former and Current UN Staff Facebook Page, by Michelle Rockcliffe, August 14, 2016

UNSPC (UN Staff Pension Committee)

Each biennium the United Nations pays the Pension Fund more than $20 million as the Fund is also the local secretariat for the UN Family (Secretariat, Funds and Programs). The CEO of the Fund is also the Secretary of the UN Staff Pension Committee responsible for a reported 86,000+ participants of the UN.
Published financial statements show that the Fund did not use its entire budget, with savings and had an average of 15 to 20 vacancies at any given time for many years. Both the ACABQ and BOA have highlighted the vacancies..

Yet we find ourselves at a juncture where thousands of former participants and their dependents or survivors have waited or are still waiting months or years or to receive benefits from the Fund, some even dying in the process of waiting.