FNPF CEO Aisake Taito and his management team continue to demand that his generation should not support the pensioners of today. He conveniently disregards the fact that it was the pensioners of today that were the very people who were paying 70% of the personal taxes received by the governments when he was an infant and later when he and others of his age were receiving their education. We the older generation subsidised the needs of the younger generation.

When the government announces its budget each year, is there an immediate toll on every woman, man and child regardless of their age to pay the sum of $3,000 per head? Of course not. However there would be if Taito’s illogical logic was applied across the spectrum.

Why do some pensions get more than others, the answer is simple, they contributed more money, they also paid substantially higher taxes because they received higher salaries, and if they were successful their companies made profits, which generated more employment and paid more taxes to the government of the day.

Now Taito and the AG want to breach the contracts of 1,207 pensioners, who have a legal contract entitling them to the pensions they currently receive, and push them into poverty for their remaining years.

The AG should decide whether legal contracts are of no value now. How will this look to new investors?  What new investors, we will soon be saying!

All those at the helm of FNPF and the Government seem to have forgotten that the $3.25 Billion belongs to the members, not the debtors, of which the government is the largest. The pensions of 1,207 current pensioners, most, if not all of whom will be dead within ten years, will not make the FNPF go broke.

What will destroy the FNPF is poor management, poor investment aptitude, lack of essential skills and the inability to restructure without causing havoc and mayhem. This is why the pensioners and members are rightly calling on the President for a totally independent Judicial Inquiry into every aspect of the Fund and its operations.

The AG has mocked our request and stated it is not necessary because there have been earlier reports, he omitted to state these reports were never made public nor were they given to the members whose money it is. By his statement he also made a mockery of the office of the President.

Justice delayed is justice denied, the members need a judicial inquiry into all aspects of the FNPF now.

Greybeard