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Missouri State Employees Retirement System Executive Director Gary Findlay said in an e-mail to retirement system board members that his employees had earned bonuses under a complex incentive pay program. But he said it would be "virtually impossible" to defend the payments because of the media's "gross mischaracterizations" of the incentive plan, according to the AP. While bonuses paid to public sector investment staff have been under fire in the wake of negative fund returns in several systems (see STRS Reneges on Investment Staff Bonuses,CalPERS, CalSTRS Continue Money Manager Bonuses , PERA Drops 2008 Money Manager Incentive Pay , MO Governor Unhappy about Retirement System Bonuses ), the bonuses put on hold for now are those of the operations staff - including Accounting, Records Management, Benefits, Communications, IT, and General Admin - which receive them in June if employees and the agency meet certain customer-service goals, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Operations staffers can receive up to 10% of their salaries as bonuses, according to the report. According to the Associated Press, fifty-seven staffers had been on track to receive the payments on June 29. Suspension Chord Findlay said he made the decision after Governor Jay Nixon's announcement that he was cutting or suspending $430 million in state spending to cope with plummeting tax collections, according to the Post-Dispatch. A spokesman for Nixon, who has been a vocal critic of bonuses paid to the investment staff (see MO Governor Unhappy about Retirement System Bonuses ), told the AP that halting the June bonuses was "an appropriate first step to reform a process that has gotten out of control." MOSERS, which was recognized as PLANSPONSOR's Public Plan Sponsor of the Year in 2008 (see Public Plan Sponsor of the Year: State of Missouri: "Show Me" State ), was acknowledged for measuring "just about everything it does in its customer service for participants and retirees." Its focus on customer service has led the fund to rank first nationwide in a peer group of about a dozen similar size public funds in an analysis by Toronto-based CEM Benchmarking Inc. (see MOSERS Customer Service ).
Missouri State Employees Retirement System Executive Director Gary Findlay said in an e-mail to retirement system board members that his employees had earned bonuses under a complex incentive pay program. But he said it would be "virtually impossible" to defend the payments because of the media's "gross mischaracterizations" of the incentive plan, according to the AP.
While bonuses paid to public sector investment staff have been under fire in the wake of negative fund returns in several systems (see STRS Reneges on Investment Staff Bonuses,CalPERS, CalSTRS Continue Money Manager Bonuses , PERA Drops 2008 Money Manager Incentive Pay , MO Governor Unhappy about Retirement System Bonuses ), the bonuses put on hold for now are those of the operations staff - including Accounting, Records Management, Benefits, Communications, IT, and General Admin - which receive them in June if employees and the agency meet certain customer-service goals, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Operations staffers can receive up to 10% of their salaries as bonuses, according to the report.
According to the Associated Press, fifty-seven staffers had been on track to receive the payments on June 29.
Suspension Chord
Findlay said he made the decision after Governor Jay Nixon's announcement that he was cutting or suspending $430 million in state spending to cope with plummeting tax collections, according to the Post-Dispatch.
A spokesman for Nixon, who has been a vocal critic of bonuses paid to the investment staff (see MO Governor Unhappy about Retirement System Bonuses ), told the AP that halting the June bonuses was "an appropriate first step to reform a process that has gotten out of control."
MOSERS, which was recognized as PLANSPONSOR's Public Plan Sponsor of the Year in 2008 (see Public Plan Sponsor of the Year: State of Missouri: "Show Me" State ), was acknowledged for measuring "just about everything it does in its customer service for participants and retirees." Its focus on customer service has led the fund to rank first nationwide in a peer group of about a dozen similar size public funds in an analysis by Toronto-based CEM Benchmarking Inc. (see MOSERS Customer Service ).
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