The make-up of the board of the Fiji National Provident Fund is expected to be changed as part of the FNPF reform to ensure that there are independent, fit and proper people on the board who know about the management of superannuation funds.
FNPF consultant, Promontory has suggested that the proposed law should have the Reserve Bank of Fiji assesses a fit and proper test before a FNPF board member is appointed.
According to the proposal which is likely to be implemented, seven members should be appointed by the Minister.
One member should be from the employers group, one from the employees group, one government member and four independent members.
It has also been proposed that the Chairman and Deputy Chairman should come from the independent members, and the board should have appropriate legal, financial, risk management and commercial skills.
Some unionists raised concern about the proposed pension rate and previous investment decisions made by FNPF.
However, Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said people should not forget that the employer and employee groups were part of those board decisions.
Meanwhile a single pensioner will get about 8.8 percent pension rate per year if he retires at 55 and opts for FNPF pension.
But there will be other options for people from this year where a person can opt to take their pension when they turn 60.
If they decide on that, then their pension rate would be about 9.8 percent while a person who takes his pension at 65, their pension rate could be about 11.6 percent.
For joint pensioners, the pension rate would be around 7.4 percent at 55, 8.1 percent at 60 years and about 8.8 percent at 65 years.
This means that the option will be with the FNPF member on when they want to take their retirement money, and the options begin from when the member reaches the age of 55.
Story by: Vijay Narayan
Feature
Make-up of FNPF board expected to be changed
