My crime? Not dying when I was 65, says retiree

Fiji’s mandatory retirement savings scheme should repeal its ‘illegal’ governing Act, says retiree Rick Rickman.

At a public consultations hosted by Fiji National Provident Fund (FNPF) in Lautoka on Friday, he said the current board and management continued to support and perpetuate their illegal FNPF Act of 2011. This as the Fund conducts a comprehensive review of its governing Act through nationwide consultations.

Mr Rickman said the FNPF Act was illegal in 2011 and remained illegal today, because it was never debated in Parliament, nor approved by a parliamentary act.

“I stand before you as a criminal in the eyes of the FNPF, its board, and its management,” he said at the consultation. “My crime? Not dying when I was 65, 26 years ago, or younger. Because of this, my current FNPF pension is 11 cents a day or $3.34 a month.”

He compared his pension to the packaged income of senior management members of the FNPF, who he said earned between $850 and $1188 per day.

“The ideal situation for the fund is for pensioners to die within two or three years of commencing their retirement,” Mr Rickman said. “Unfortunately for FNPF, others and I did not, so they illegally breached our contracts with their 2011 FNPF Act, a rather disgusting and illegal act.”

In 2011 and 2012, Mr Rickman and the late David Burness initiated legal action against FNPF, the Government and the Attorney-General.

“Our legal representative was lawyer Shaista Shamen, a previous director of the Fiji Human Rights Commission,” he said. “Our legal actions were blocked from being heard in court by the illegal Decree 51 issued by the former Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.”

Far too many FNPF members who were defrauded and suffered have since died, including Mr Burness, and most recently, Jackson Mar.

“I believe the management of FNPF is currently considering a promotion campaign where they will state that they want to increase pension payment from nine per cent to 12 per cent, but cannot afford to do so if they are compelled to reimburse the monies they illegally deprived their eldest pensioners of,” Mr Rickman said.

“Now is the time for FNPF to repeal their illegal 2011 Act, because the Electoral system and the 2013 Constitution put in place by the previous administration are in need of revision and are currently under serious review.

“The FNPF management team would be well advised to read the esteemed Professor Wadam Narsey’s written opinion of the funds’ 2011 actions.”

FNPF board director Sikeli Tuinamuana acknowledged the concerns raised by Mr Rickman and those who have also been affected by the reduction in the pension rates back in 2011. That is one of the reasons why we are having these reviews,” Mr Tuinamuana said.

“It is good that they come forward to make their concerns known and we will take that forward into our drafting of the terms of reference,” he said.