14 minutes agoTrust without a functional Bord, “risks” Kosovars invested abroad pensions
Periskopi(3 years ago)
(3 years ago)Since February 28th, 2023 all members of the Kosovo Pension Savings Fund Steering Board (FKPK) have completed their mandate. From that date, 2.5 billion euros from Kosovars' pensions are without management, exposing themselves to possible risks because no action can be taken without a Bord [...]
From that date, 2.5 billion euros from Kosovars' pensions are without management, being exposed to possible risks because no action can be taken without a functional Bord.
Under the law, only the Board decides for investment or withdrawal of invested means.
In the absence of the Board, savings collected by the Trust over the past few months can be invested in financial markets and that if the value of financial instruments that have been invested in Trust tools is reduced, no one can make changes to avoid it. The competition for the election of new members has been closed on December 23rd, 2022, but since then the responsible Commission has not yet examined the candidates that have applied.
“For Review, the FKPK Steering Board's competition for members has been closed on December 23rd 2022, and the Election Commission (appointed under the Law on Pension Fund) remains to consider potential candidates that will proceed for the appointment of the Kosovo Assembly”, said in a media communique by the FKP of March 1st.
In this communiqué, the Trust has warned of the dangers that may occur unless the Board is elected in time.
Because decision-making about investments is the exclusive legal/fiucial responsibility of the Steering Board, which cannot be delegated, the lack of the Steering Board enables the institution to make any decision on investing pension means, both for investing pension means outside Kosovo and those within Kosovo. So all current investments cannot be changed (shown or withdrawn), just as all new pension contributions that are collected can't be invested”, it says, there.
Trust spokesman Jeton Demi, in a response to the Economic Bulletin today, has said all procedures, such as opening the long-term competition and sending candidates to the Commission responsible, have been carried out.
We inform you that the competition for members of the FKPK Steering Board has been opened by the institution at the moment the request has come from the Election Commission, which is the legal body responsible for the case. After the competition ended, all applications have been submitted to the Electoral Commission”, Demi said. The commission consists of the finance minister, the governor of the Kosovo Central Bank and the general audience. “After submitting applications to the FKPK's Responsibility Commission on the issue ends (as defined with legislation in force). For all issues that are not in the competence of our institution (so FKPK) we cannot give comments or assessments”, Demi has added.
Regarding whether Kosovars' pensions are endangered in the absence of the Board, Demi has said that “cannot and should not be speculated”.
The deputy from the LDK ranks, Avdullah Hoti, who has said that the Pension Trust is left without Bord and that, in turn, 2.5 billion euros are without management. According to Hoti, the lack of the Board could harm Trust investments by hundreds of millions of euros because in the absence of the Board, savings collected by the Trust during these months can be invested in financial markets and that if the value of financial instruments where the Trust tools are invested, no one can make changes to avoid it.
If the value of financial instruments where the Trust tools are invested, as it is happening in recent months, no one can make changes to the investment portfolio to avoid reducing the value of existing Trust” investments, Hoti said. Hoti has said that the minister of finance, the general audience and the governor of the CEC, should be accountable for that. “I will request an urgent meeting of the Parliamentary Commission on Boards to review this situation. The majority governing the country has rejected the Trust withdrawal bill. Now, with its neglect, it is damaging millions of euros to citizens”, Hoti wrote.
