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

WASHINGTON--(Business Wire)--
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.

NASRA
Keith Brainard
512-868-2774
keithb@nasra.org

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