Gregory Fortuin
Wellington, March 19, 2021
I call for an investigation into how KiwiSaver providers are investing in nuclear weapons.
This can only be because managers are not properly monitoring their claims to be ethically investing KiwiSaver members money.
Please read a story that appeared in New Zealand Herald on March 18, 2020 here.
Ethical mandate
An ethical mandate is a serious statement to an investor, it must be clearly stated in the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) and KiwiSaver providers must have a compliance plan and compliance assurance plan to guarantee their mandate is being met.
This is a two-step process, but the reality is that it is clearly not being complied with or monitored and enforced by the Financial Monetary Authority (FMA).
Ethical investors in particular are entitled to rely on this being done, but clearly that reliance is currently misplaced.
Illegal ventures
Is it the opaque nature of many KiwiSaver schemes that allows prohibited investments such as illegal investments in nuclear weapons to happen?
I wonder if there is too much reliance on computer algorithms to determine placement of funds and imaginative definitions of what complies and what does not, results in unacceptable conduct as reported in the news media today.
By replacing human judgement with computer assessments, intangible values such as moral investment decisions, are not possible.
I am concerned that there is an unwillingness, combined with an inability of international delegated investment managers to disclose exactly where and with whom, funds are placed.
Common New Zealanders unaware
Ordinary Kiwis have no effective means to determine with certainty what is being done with the investment of their money, unless there is an independent investigation to consider how this investment in nuclear weapons under the FMC regime has been allowed to occur.
This not the first time that KiwiSavers have been caught out investing in nuclear weapons.
It is not acceptable that in the current KiwiSaver market environment, a KiwiSaver Scheme is invested in the ultimate inhuman weapon of mass destruction.
Such investments are illegal under New Zealand Law.
The time required to check where funds are in fact being invested costs time and money.
It is a concern that the mantra of low fees means essential management functions are maybe being compromised.
Responsibility abrogated
Managers who are delegating this responsibility to Third Party providers (many of whom do not disclose their fees thereby enabling the mantra of low fees), are abrogating their responsibility to be checking that their ethical mandate is being implemented.
Gregory Fortuin is Chairman of Amanah Ethical, the only KiwiSaver Fund compliant with Sharia Law, offering a growth-focused and high-fee option and investing more than 90% of its current assets in foreign share markets. Amanah Ethnical does not invest in companies that deal in pork, interest-earning, alcohol and other forbidden activities.
