Dear Mr Kodagoda and associates
I do not propose to go over the detail of the changes that you have announced in the FNPF reforms but only to comment on the more obvious contradictions, inequities and myths you have created.
Your FNPF Reforms
In announcing your reforms to FNPF you have chosen the harshest way of restructuring FNPF and so it seems to deliberately make pensioners suffer. This will bring hardship and anxiety to some 3,600 of your pensioners who will now receive a significantly reduced pension. This does not seem to worry any of you? In addition your consultants have contradicted themselves in public statements. This simply brings into question all of your credibility.
There were, and are other ways of resolving the FNPF problems, that would not have created the hardship and difficulty you have inflicted on pensioners. It is obvious you do not understand this, or just don’t want to understand or listen to this. With the exception of Mr Taito, neither you or your associates have been brave enough to argue your case openly in the public domain and have pursued a bunker mentality in your reaction to the widespread criticism against your proposed reforms. Mr Taito unfortunately fell dramatically short of what was required. He was defiant, defensive and antagonistic in responding to genuine enquiries of concern that your reforms will bring. Your public relations efforts in this respect have been a disaster. One wonders if you cannot manage a public relations exercise how you can then have the nous to make the momentous decisions you have?
The consultative process has been something of a sick joke, as evidenced by your inability to respond to, or even give the courtesy of an acknowledgement to the many letters and emails, that have all been written expressing genuine concern at the impact of the changes. You may have disagreed with these views but you could have at least had the courtesy to send a simple acknowledgement.
I have acknowledged to you, I am a concerned and interested party, just as I said in an earlier email that both you Mr Kodagoda, and you Mr Taito, would be concerned if your employer decided to reduce your remuneration package by more than 50%. I now hope they do this and you will then know how we feel when we have subscribed to FNPF for some 30 years or more just to find that our contract has been torn up and our pension half of what it was contracted for and should be.
I am sure you will have already discarded me as one of those selfish few looking after their own interests, but let me say again, I have every right to be concerned at your reforms and to protect my interests and to fight for the pension that I have saved for over the past thirty years or so for my retirement, and I make no apology for this.
Our Contract with FNPF
Your consultants said in their advice to you that FNPF was contracted to existing pensioners. You have ignored this advice. They further recommended that in restructuring FNPF, funds should be set aside to provide for the existing pension liability, separate from future pension liabilities.
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Fiji Pensioners 