State Retirement Plan Administrators Reaffirm Strong Opposition to Pay-to-Play.

WASHINGTON -- In response to heightened media attention to isolated but high profile cases of so-called "pay-to-play" in the public sector, the Executive Committee of the National Association of State Retirement Administrators (NASRA) unanimously voted at its fall meeting to reaffirm the Association's long-held resolutions promoting ethics policies and disclosure requirements for those entrusted with the investment and management of public pension funds.

"In light of the publicity surrounding recent disclosures and allegations of unethical or illegal activity, the Executive Committee wishes to restate and reaffirm the Association's long-standing belief that public plan fiduciaries should be held to the highest ethical standards," said Eric Stanchfield, NASRA President and Executive Director of the District of Columbia Retirement Board. "We encourage all public retirement systems to exercise due diligence and vigorously enforce disclosure requirements and ethics policies that demand unassailable fiduciary conduct by system staff, trustees and service providers, including undivided loyalty to the fund, open and honest decision-making processes, and interests that are aligned solely with the plan," he said. "Plans should be vigilant in continually monitoring adherence to these standards, ensuring complete transparency in decision-making and eliminating conflicts of interest, both real and perceived," he added.

NASRA members are the directors of the nation's State, territorial, and largest statewide public retirement systems. Together, these systems hold more than $2 trillion in assets and provide pension and other benefits to more than two-thirds of all state and local government employees. NASRA has two long-standing resolutions calling for every public retirement systems' fiduciaries, including those who are under contract to provide services to the system, to be held to strong conflict of interest, financial disclosure and other ethics-related laws and standards, and to avoid even the appearance of influence that may be created by relationships with others. The resolutions can be found at http://www.nasra.org/resolutions.htm#200501 and http://www.nasra.org/resolutions.htm#199906.