REPORT
The 43rd Session of the Annual General Body Meeting of the AFUNPI was held at Sailing Annex, Secunderabad Club on 08 February 2018, in which participants from Trivandrum, Kochi, Coimbatore, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Kolkata, Delhi, Chandigarh and New York attended.
Following the welcome address and adoption of the agenda items, Ms. Daphne de Rebello was elected to be the President of the AGM to chair the sessions of the day.
Before proceeding with the presentation of the Annual Report for 2017, a one-minute silence was observed by all present as a mark of respect to the departed members.
The Annual Report for 2017 was presented by M Seenappa, President of the Association, in which activities undertaken during the year were summarized, besides sharing following points:
- Communication to UNJSPF can henceforth be made only through the ‘Contact Form’ on their website. The earlier facility of E-mail has been discontinued except for ‘Death-related’ and ‘Emergency-related’ communications
- Need for members to register on Member Services (MSS) to access various information including payments, status of documents sent/received, etc.
- Certificate of Entitlement (CE) Form need to be signed and returned to UNJSPF office by December to avoid suspension of payment (Sign in blue ink only). Those who did not receive the CE form in the second mailing list should write a letter to UNJSPF mentioning name, address, Unique ID No, place and date and send the duly signed letter to UNJSPF. Those on single track can print their own CE form using the MSS facility. There has so far been no suspension of payment for AFUNPI members due to alertness and timely intervention. Members are urged to keep AFUNPI informed of non-receipt of CE form by them.
- It was noted that AFUNPI had a total of 392 members from different UN agencies. Nearly 103 reside in Delhi, 63 in Bangalore and 40 in Chennai. A few members have taken residence outside India in countries such as Austria, Canada, France, Switzerland and the USA.
- The 4th annual Pre-retirement orientation of UN staff members in India planned on 3 October 2017 in UNDP Conference Hall, Delhi had to be postponed due to unavoidable reasons. This need to be re-scheduled sometime soon.
- AFUNPI monthly meetings were held almost regularly on 2nd Mondays of each month during 2017 in which members took turn to facilitate enrichment sessions on various aspects of their work in the UN system besides experience-sharing.
- UN Day was observed at the Century Club in Bengaluru with good participation, in which the message from UN Secretary General was read out by Mr. Janakiram.
- It was informed that Dr. Narasimhan and Dr. Seenappa participated in the FAFICS Council meeting held in Vienna in July 2017. (In all, 63 Associations globally are affiliated to the FAFICS Council). Besides, Dr. Seenappa also attended the UN Pension Board meeting held in Vienna in July 2017. Dr Seenappa was elected Vice President of FAFICS for the fourth term of one-year. Report on the proceedings of these meetings were duly shared with members on 7 August 2017. The next Pension Board meeting is planned sometime in July 2018 in Rome to be hosted by FAO.
- Reported that Mr. Seenappa was nominated at the UN Pension Board as one of the two Members from FAFICS to the 8-member Assets & Liabilities Monitoring (ALM) Committee of the UN Pension Board for a four-year term.
The Income and Expenditure Statements for 2017 and Budget Proposal for 2018 were presented to the group. These were approved and accepted by all members present.
The following members were elected to the Executive Committee for 2018-2020
- M. Seenappa (President)
- N. Srinivasan (Vice President)
- R.P. Agrawal (Vice President)
- Magdalene Chand (Honorary Secretary)
- Sreelakshmi Gururaja
- M. Pradeep Kumar
- Minnie Mathew
- Sharadamani Swamy Rao
Mr S. Jankiram appraised the members about Dr. P.S Pant who has been associated with AFUNPI for over 27 years. The members recognized his long time association and contribution to AFUNPI. In recognition Dr. PS Pant was conferred the honour “Patron of the Association” title amid wide applause by all participants. Dr Pant was requested to convene regular meetings of all UN Retirees stationed in Hyderabad and seek any assistance required for the same.
As part of general discussions, Dr Seenappa briefed the participants on various aspects of pension payments and After Service Health Insurance. He clarified that an Affidavit issued by the Notary Public In lieu of Birth certificate and/or Marriage Certificate would be an acceptable document for pension claim by spouse. He also briefed the members on the Single-Track and Two-Track modes of pension payments, and the process involved for switching from one mode of payment to the other.
In her concluding remarks, Ms Daphne de Rebello appreciated the effective participation of members in the AGM and reiterated on the importance of continuation of information dissemination on changes at the UNJSP in general.
The members proposed Goa or Calcutta as the possible venue for the AGM in 2020
Ms. M Chand proposed a vote of thanks to the President of the AGM, and thanked all members for their participation and making the event a grand success. Ms Chand also thanked the President and Vice-President of the Secunderabad Club for their excellent cooperation and services by facilitating accommodation and food arrangements for visiting members, besides venue and lunch arrangements for the AGM meeting.
Report prepared by Mr M. P. Kumar
Rapporteur
