The reports I’ve read thus far about yesterday’s meeting have led me to conclude that the Board has a formidable grasp of the obvious. They shouldn’t recruit more bodies to join those adrift on their sinking ship. They’ve got to scramble and find funds. They’re going to get sued. Duh.
But I’m not sure why they need t0 run out and hire a lawyer when they’ve got one on board: Russell Buffkin of Mobile. I haven’t found any evidence that he is particularly savvy about hiring investment firms, but he does specialize in contract law. In fact, when I came across that scrap, I wondered if he was assigned to the board for the purpose of finding weasel ways out of the program’s contractual obligations.
It will take some time to think about the reports posted last night on the State of Alabama Treasury’s PACT site, but until then, 2 observations:
1. Remember back in Part 4 of this series I noted:
The Gang of 8 or 9, aka Managers: The Investment Policy & Guidelines Statement for the PACT adopted November 19, 2008 lists 8 Managers in Appendix B. The FAQ added March 13, 2009 to the PACT website lists 9…
Guess what? Now it’s The Gang of 9 or, maybe, 10.
The first thing to leap out at me, so obvious is it, as I look at the newly posted 2008 Financial Report and the presentation by Callan Associates at yesterday’s Board meeting in Montgomery were these 2 statements:
The PACT portfolio is invested with nine different institutional
asset managers who each have a different investment mandate.
The objective is to create a portfolio diversified by asset class and
investment manager.
And now from page 10 [Note 2, Cash & Investments] of the Financial Report dated September 30, 2008:
As of September 30, 2008, the PACT program had ten money managers to invest plan assets.
So did someone drop out between September and now? What happened: did they zero out the money entrusted to them?
Why is it so hard to count to ten?
2. And the other obvious thing: The Financial Report from September 30, 2008 is a draft. Come on, folks. Today is March 25, 2009. This means in 5 days it will be March 30 [right, CA? still with me? Need to grab a calculator? I’ll wait). Now then, let’s try counting together: October, November, December, January, February, and March. Six, right? Six months later all we have is a draft report? Why?
Question:
We have 2007 reports. We have the stuff they released yesterday. And we have the 2006 audit report.
Have you seen any actuarial reports or audit reports from previous years?
The reason I’m asking is that I can’t locate them anywhere. I don’t want to request them if I’ve just overlooked them, but I DO think we need to see them.
let me know . . .
great post.
I haven’t been able to find them either. I have tried the archives at the alabama .gov site — no luck there.
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Check your e-mail.
And, the bigger Facebook group is having a “Call Montgomery” day.
http://www.leftinalabama.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3651
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