The following is an excellent suggestion and a fair settlement for the surviving elderly of Fiji who were cheated out of legal pensions by corrupt individuals who later legalised their actions with the support of gutless individuals who happily danced to a despicable man’s tune.

The question is, “Are the 8+ FNPF executives on an annual remuneration package of $325,000+ per annum, going to agree, or are they waiting for the aged individuals they cheated to all die”?

**************

Minister of Finance (Professor Biman Prasad) and Chairman FNPF (Mr Daksesh Patel)

FNPF Board Members FNPF Board Secretary

Chairman of ad hoc Committee representing 2012 pensioners (Professor Vijay Naidu)

Dear Sirs/Madam

1.  I would be grateful if you would table this request at the next FNPF Board Meeting for consideration by the Board in consultation with the Minister of Finance.

2. The Minister of Finance (Professor Biman Prasad) correctly and courageously acknowledged in his last Budget Presentation that the actions of of the Bainimarama Government (and the FNPF) in 2012 to force existing FNPF pensioners to either take reduced pensions or take away a lump sum, was illegal. Also grossly illegal (and a denial of their basic human right to go to court with their grievance) was the Military Decree that stated that the Burness case already being heard in the courts would not be proceeded with. 

3. History will however ask, what did the Coalition Government do to right this illegal act, having fully acknowledged its illegality?

4. These pensioners had been freely offered and freely accepted the FNPF’s offer of a pension until they died: their lawful “property” ( no longer their lump sum left with FNPF). If they died before getting back their “lump sum” that was their hard luck. Some did fall into this category.

5. These pensions lost a large part of their property when (a) they accepted a lower pension rate than that agreed to originally by the FNPF or (b) they took away the lump sum, whose long term value was less than that of the original pensions agreed to, if they survived long enough. These sums can be easily computed by the FNPF today given that the pensions were given in dollar terms, and not inflation indexed (so ignore the impact of inflation).

6. Given that this robbery was instigated by the Bainimarama Government, the debt to those defrauded pensioners, like the Public Debt today, is the joint responsibility of  the current lawful Government and the FNPF.

7. If the pensioners were to be allowed their basic human right to seek a legal redress, it is my view that fair courts would fully restore these pensioners’ lost property going back to the illegal Decrees, and, as has been the case in the recent case of the former Solicitor General Sharma, also award punitive damages for the pain and suffering caused. There would also be the wastage of legal fees on both sides.

8.  I suggest that the current Government and the FNPF Board can go down in history as courageously correcting a horrendous blot on Fiji’s legal system by fully restoring the property of the 2012 pensioners affected by

(a) FNPF restoring and backdating the pensions of all those who had been forced to accept the lower pensions (until they died);

(b) FNPF restoring the backdated lost pensions of those who had been forced to take a lump sum (less lump sum payout), and restoring their pensions to those still alive, which they are legally entitled to under contract law.

(c) the Fiji Government (through the Minister of Finance) shouldering a half of the financial burden accruing to the FNPF through a grant to FNPF, perhaps distributed over the next three budgets, beginning 1 July 2024.

8. I believe that the FNPF is currently in a healthy financial position and has amply demonstrated its financial resilience in recovering from the COVID shock, with its surpluses helped of course, by the illegal reductions of pensions to the 2012 pensioners.

Yours sincerely

Professor Wadan Narsey

One of the 2012 Pensioners

Melbourne