Page 46 - Bulletin, Vol.78 No.1, March 2019

d. AAFI-AFICS plays an active role in the work of FAFICS (secretary: Jay
Sundaresan until 26 July 2018; Treasurer: Wolfgang Milzow; Katia
Chestopalov: Vice-President) and in FAFICS Working Groups (High-Level
Working Group on ASHI: Katia Chestopalov). Pierre Sayour, the new
FAFICS Secretary since 26 July, takes part as a guest at the monthly
AFICS Committee meetings.

e. The FAFICS headquarters are located in Geneva in offices provided by the
UNOG Administration.
f. Traditionally the secretary of FAFICS is a member of the AAFI-AFICS
Committee and, following the resignation of Jay Sundaresan for July,
AFICS had identified and supported a candidate. The FAFICS Council,
however, elected Pierre Sayour who was backed by AFUS Paris. It must be
noted that since both the Secretary and the Treasurer live in the Geneva
region, they are able to work together with the logistical assistance of
AFICS.

55. Cooperation with associations of active staff

AAFI-AFICS has continued to seek a closer relationship with the
associations of serving staff of WIPO and the UNHCR which do not have a
retiree association. The Association also supported the UNOG Staff
Coordinating Council in its action concerning the reduction of the post
adjustment of professional staff salaries in Geneva. With other organizations,
AAFI-AFICS considers that the existing relations with the retiree associations
are indispensable and continues to maintain close contacts, especially within
the AAFI-AFICS Committee.
56. Assistance to retirees in administrative transactions with the UN Staff
Pension Fund

57. The Pension Fund now holds a permanence in Office S-060 once a week on
Tuesday from 09h00 to 12h00, which allow retirees and future retirees to
receive information concerning their decisions on retirement. We hope that the
permanence will once again be open twice a week. A wealth of information and
documentation (change of address or bank account) is available on the Fund’s
website (www.unjspf.org). Since the installation of the new IT system (IPAS),
the site is more user-friendly, although it is still regrettable that much of the
information is available only in English. It is now possible to register with the
MMS to find out, for example, if the Certificate of Entitlement (CE) has been
received.

58. AFICS still receives from the Pension Fund a list of those who have not
returned their CE and risk a suspension of the payment of their pension, which
will result in a prolonged wait before payment can be reestablished. Locating
these retirees and explaining the importance of signing and returning this
document (see specimen in Annex VI) to the Pension Fund is a lengthy task.
This list, which is also distributed to our sister associations, who have made an

44 AAFI-AFICS BULLETIN, Vol. 78 No. 1, 2019-03