STEPHEN CRANSTON: One board is quite enough for the PIC and the GEPF
The time is long overdue to merge the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) with the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF). When I once wrote a centenary survey on the PIC nobody could decide who should speak on investments, so I had a joint interview with Dan Matjila from the PIC and John Oliphant from the GEPF. It was clear that Oliphant’s function was confined to the (important) role of asset and liability matching — as well as his Billy Graham-style crusade for responsible investing. He wouldn’t have been consulted on anything so trivial as a R4bn investment in a technology company.
The best way to ensure the GEPF takes full responsibility and has full oversight is to let it become its own asset manager along the lines of CalPers, the California retirement scheme. This makes the process of hiring and firing managers much faster. It recently reduced the number of “emerging” managers (its inverted commas not mine) it hires from five to one. The PIC would never act so quick...
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