In Reply to WA Wijewardena saying EPF should be investigated in line with COPE

Without a shred of evidence he is now set his attack on to beleaguered and thoroughly incompetent management of EPF without actually making a sensible suggestion of how they should improve their performance.

http://www.ft.lk/article/578511/EPF-should-be-investigated--promptly-as-recommended-by-COPE

WA has no case. He is one sided not knowing the truth, as he just surmises.

In order to create liquidity, you have to have PDs buying at a price, and they have available bonds to sell at the secondary market. EPF can choose NOT to buy or buy at the price that Perpetual Set. How can it be there was something untoward?

If the EPF just sits on the daily cash they get they DO NOT get any interest. This is a man with a Island mentality that has a problem! The fact that Perpetual sold to EPF at a profit, don’t lay the blame at Perpetual. They have the bonds, EPF needs to buy. Being the largest PD there is NO ONE else they can go to.

WA simply is dreaming as his case is with NO merit. As EPF though not a PD is allowed to bid at the auctions, why did they not bid in the first place? Ask EPF management, it is their problem, can’t you see it?

EPF has to be managed by professional fund managers, who are paid handsomely for their effort. Otherwise there is NO incentive to make a good return for the members, the GENERAL PUBLIC OF SRI LANKA.

It is best to concentrate your energies on that point, and get rid of the amateurs who manage these funds. In any other Country with Funds such as these, over US$10Billion, your asset manager must be paid at least US$10M to manage this, and if you did, the fund would have gone up by at least twice in the past 15 years.

So the loser is the PUBLIC. Just think about it, stop chasing mirages and get to the real problem of jokers of your puerile ilk, managing the people’s funds. We have to look at the big picture and it is NOT NICE. We need professionals. Retired bankers are just that,  old lifers who don’t have a life so they rant on about a piffly point, forgetting the larger and more serious point of TOTAL MISMANAGEMENT of our people’s pension funds.

EPF current management and the CBSL MUST be blamed during WA’s time for most of it, should NOT be in the business of managing a huge portfolio, and also issuing bonds.

Sadly the writer, WA Wijewardena, should offer a solution of how the people’s pension fund is managed better for better returns in the long run. Otherwise his whole waste of pontification is merely for his own egotistical ha-rang of sour grapes.

Of course an incentive based on a running average rate of return over a 5 year period where they get say 25% of increase above say a 12% return, would have shown stellar returns for the public. Just hire the Perpetual Dealer to do that, and you will eat your words, when the EPF value goes up by 20% next year. The trouble is you cannot stomach his paycheck of Rs 50B, even though he makes 250B (after his fees) for the EPF.

Just think of the scandal that will cause! That is the ISLAND mentality we are stuck in today. This is the way pension funds are managed in any other Country, just not here! WHY?

Yes they divide it amongst about 5 or 10 wealth managers, but we only have ONE here at present, who can do the job, and you are attacking him for all he’s got.

Shame on you.

In the days before auctions, the EPF was forced by the previous administration to buy Bonds at low interest rates. That effectively means, that the Private Sector workers savings were being robbed by the Govt. as they were forced to earn a lower return.

Now the savings are earning a higher market determined rate of interest, and if you follow me, I am suggesting a method, by which they earn an even higher rate of return, if managed by REAL PROFESSIONAL managers and NOT Cowboys as at present.

The hardworking people of the Private Sector of Sri Lanka which is the only engine of growth in this economy, deserve better, and should be able to take out more than they do at present. We have lost the wood from the trees. Let us concentrate ON THAT simple premise and work towards achieving this simple goal. All the writings such as this are then superfluous to that aim.

We owe it to this sector of worker to be able to live well in retirement, considering the overtime, long years, stress and sacrifice they have made with their lives.

The Public Sector on the other hand (including all present and former CBSL employees) continue to leach off the people’s taxes, not adding one red cent even to this argument. The words spoken above are typical of the Public Sector mentality and is time we took account of the fact when we determine who is worth listening to and emulating for the Good of the Country.

The unfunded pension payments of the Public Sector, is something no one is talking about. It is time it comes to the fore in public discourse. It runs into trillions and there is NO investment fund for that, they will be merely paying it out of the taxes of the working people at that time, of which there will probably be less than today, with the population charts showing a fall in young people of working age as when compared with the retired.

This goes to the inevitable conclusion we MUST face, that we have to increase retirement age as soon as possible, as we are facing a huge labor shortage, and it is NOT inconceivable to raise retirement age from 55 to 75, by which time we may still have to pay pensions for the huge female labor force in the Public Sector who will likely live to a 100 but not have to do this for the male population who may kick the bucket earlier.

I am mentioning this aspect to focus the mind on the future. We have to face reality, as most of the people living in Sri Lanka are living a day dreamers’ existence, and not surprising because we have people like WA Wijewardena, spouting out mischievous lies, that he expects people to believe in order to hold him in high esteem.

It is time we called his bluff, and consign him to luxurious retirement on his fat pension. We have more important things to do rather than be bogged down by such infantile pronouncements. The GOVT owes it to the people to explain clearly the problems at hand, even though they may be unpalatable, and not get bogged down in scandals of their own making, due to their incompetent management of the people they hire and NOT give them a clear direction in what is expected of them.

I am confident that at some point shortly, people will realize it is more important to face the facts, and not be distracted by people who profess knowledge, that is harmful, and wasteful, to say nothing of the level of treachery involved in their statements. In the end all will be fine, let us hope it is sooner rather than later.