Nasfund

National Superannuation Fund (NASFUND) CEO, Ian Tarutia, said persons can be fined up to half a million Kina if found to be in breach of the Superannuation Act.

Under the Superannuation Act, there are strong penalties that can be imposed on people who do not comply.

One of them is the non-remittance of member contributions by employers.

This followed acceptance of the 2019 audited accounts by the NASFUND Board at its meeting held on Thursday morning, 27th February 2020.

Chairman Charles Vee, on behalf of the Board stated that the results were positive in yet another challenging year. Chairman Vee said the Fund had demonstrated a strong resilience in attaining a positive outcome with an over budgeted performance in cash returns from investments and controlled expenses.

In October 2019, NASFUND introduced the One Member One Account concept, which means a member will only have one account number for life once they register with the Fund as a contributor. Currently, members moving employment from one establishment to another end up with more than one membership number and this becomes problematic when the member becomes eligible to withdraw their savings.

In a statement, CEO Ian Tarutia, said: “2019 was a busy and productive year for NASFUND.

"Several key initiatives in our Member Services area were introduced which will continue this year while good growth was achieved from our investment portfolio, membership base, contribution receipts and new employer registration," Tarutia outlined. 

“For the first time, we achieved a record K561.5 million in contribution receipts from employers, compared to K519 million in 2018.

The superfund, in planning for these changes, will be conducting employer workshop starting in Port Moresby where 60 percent of its members are based and later to the rest of the provinces.

NASFUND is introducing a new initiative, the enforcement of ‘one member- one account’ for its members.

The merging of multiple accounts will ease the hassle members currently face in going to previous employers to obtain identification letters in accessing their retirement savings.

This follows the realignment of operational processes at its Boroko and Port Moresby branches.

Both branches currently serve 60 percent of NASFUND’s total membership.

Member Services Manager, Jimmy Ume, says on September 30^th, NASFUND realigned its operational processes creating the Boroko branch to become a fully-fledged payment centre, while the Port Moresby branch concentrates on member maintenance services.

According to NASFUND, NBPOL is the largest private sector employer in PNG with over 24,000 employees.

The kiosk project is intended to enhance NASFUND’s service availability for members to view their account information including balances, transaction histories, beneficiary information and housing advance eligibilities in real time.

The Super Act allows members to access their super savings to build a home, purchase a home or improve an existing dwelling that is the principal place of residence.

“NASFUND is supportive of this provision as it addresses an important social need for members and their families. In recent times however, the Fund has come across cases where this facility has not been used for its intended purposes,” said the Fund in a statement.  

Chief Investment Officer, David Brown, said the company is positioning itself to take advantage of the expected economic growth of the country.

Speaking at NASFUND’s Employer Conference on March 14^th, Brown said 2018 was a tough year for the fund given the modest crediting rate.

“We modeled where we would go, NASFUND on our conservative modeling ranges in the next five years between K6.2 to K6.8 billion. So we could be a K7 billion fund,” said Brown.

This was revealed by Chairman Hulala Tokome during the announcement of the fund’s 2018 financial year.

During the announcement of its 2018 financial performance, the Chairman revealed the number of millionaires created through the fund.

“Analysis of our member data show 64 members have over K1 million in their superannuation account, 268 members have between K500, 000 and K1 million, while 1, 521 members have balances between K250,00 to K500,000,” said Tokome.