The Fiji National Provident Fund recorded a negative net contribution of $16.02million, according to its Annual report of 2008. The negative net contribution indicates that members’ withdrew more funds than they contributed during this financial year, ended June 30, 2008.

Contributions received was $281.68 million, averaging $23.5 million per month, compared to $289.63 million in 2007. Of the total collected, $4.5 million were unidentified and not distributed to member’s accounts due to the lack of personal information supplied by the Employers.

The Fund paid out $297.70million in benefit payments (withdrawals) compared to $292.33 million in 2007.

The Fund’s assets increased by $125 million bringing the total asset base to $3.5 billion. Members funds was $2.61 billion.

The report stated that membership increased significantly to 352,358 from the 343,453 the previous year. The Fund also paid out 6% interest to its members totaling $131.07 million
compared to $128.35 million the previous year. Employers’ membership increased also from 6647 to 6701.

Investment income reduced to $194.04 million compared to $199 million the previous year. The decrease was due to revaluation of the Fund’s property portfolio and rebalancing of its investments offshore following directives from the Reserve Bank of Fiji.

Meanwhile, the report highlighted that the RBF conducted on-site examinations on the effectiveness of the Fund’s oversight functions in mitigating the risks for investments, asset and liability management, contributions and benefit payments. The Fund continues to implement recommendations by RBF.

The 2008 Annual report was tabled in Cabinet last month. The 2008 accounts was the first prepared in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

Previously, the financials were prepared under Fiji Accounting Standards (FAS). Under IFRS, the Fund needed to adjust/amend certain accounting, measurement and valuation methods. The comparative figures for 2007 were restated to reflect these adjustments.

The Fund says this was the reason for the delay in releasing the report.