The Fiji National Provident Fund has begun major reforms to its organization, governance and operational structures following a directive from the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance last month.

These reforms include the appointment of new Board of Directors to manage the group business, consolidation of all its subsidiaries into a Group-wide structure. This will incorporate monthly financial and operational reporting systems and a review of the Fund’s Investment and Information Communication Technology strategies.

Also, the Fund will be looking at divesting non-performing assets, non-performing investments and re-shaping its loan book.

These changes are aimed at maximizing leverage of all the Fund’s resources to attain best returns for its members as it refocuses on its core business.

FNPF Board of Directors
The Fund’s new Board of Directors will assume a group focus instead of the individual subsidiary company focus that has been in place since 2005. This will substantially reduce the overhead costs for the business:

Mr. John Prasad will be the Group Chairman for FNPF.

Restructuring of FNPF subsidiaries
All Boards of the Fund’s fully-owned subsidiaries have been abolished.

These subsidiaries including FNPF Investments Limited (FIL) will now report directly to the FNPF Board and its Group Chairman.

Under this new structure, the reporting line of the FNPF and its subsidiaries will be centralized to the Group Chief Executive Officer, who will be fully involved in the daily operation of the Group.

The Group CEO will be empowered with all staff related matters including employment issues, supervision and management of the affairs of the subsidiaries.

Consolidation of Monthly Financial Statements
The Group’s subsidiaries will soon be required to submit monthly financial reports to the FNPF Board, to enable it to analyze and monitor the overall performance of the Group. Therefore, a Group Auditor will be appointed to undertake Annual External Audit of the Group. The Board will engage an external auditor to scrutinize monthly consolidated accounts, which will be executed via the Tender process.

Re-focusing of the Funds core business
The new Board will look into strengthening the realignment of the business to the FNPF Act. Therefore, there will be a review of the Fund’s current Withdrawal Policy and organizational structure to ensure that the Fund’s business objectives are fully achieved.

The Fund needs to ensure that its functions are aligned to its core objective of being a retirement pension fund offering financial security to its members during retirement.

IT Strategy Review
The Fund also aims to revolutionize and transform the Fund's current fragmented computer systems and databases to a more integrated and service-oriented architecture. This will allow for more rapid adaptation to modern demands and changing business needs.

Review of Investment Policies
The FNPF will review all of its investment policies to ensure sound management and prudent investment decisions are made to maximize returns to members’ funds.

The review will also include the divestment of all of FNPF’s non-performing assets. The following are some immediate action management is undertaking to recover members’ invested funds: