It's all about the lack of contributions from TVA. The investment performance has been above average over most time frames we measured.
Unfortunately, the chart probably makes TVA look better than it really was compared to the others in 2014 because it is on a fiscal year. Interest rates were significantly higher at the end of fiscal year 2014 than they were at the end of calendar year 2014.
In all of my 34 years at TVA I always heard that TVA wanted to be a leader of other utilities. Yet they would always look at what other utilities do, not always for the best. This concept is good if you look for their best ideas and operational practices. I guess TVA till wants to be a leader by being the best underfunded retirement system of comparable utilities. This is not what I would expect of a leader. Ever since we got a part time Board organization our funding levels have dropped. Is this a coincidence?
ReplyDeleteThis should be unacceptable to TVARS Board Members.
ReplyDeleteMy thought is that It indeed appears that I am looking at the result of a “cultural” change that has occurred within TVA management. The good old days of “TVA’s greatest asset - its employees” has long since gone by the wayside. What ever happened to “Star 7”, the “Blue Poker Chip” of “Critical Success Factor”? Whatever happened to “employee empowerment”, “thinking outside the box”, “employees first”? What happened to the all-glorious ”Bench Marks”, that TVA would strive to meet? What ever happened to the “TVA wants to be the best”? Whatever happened to TVA’s corporate ethics? These and many more initiatives to benefit TVA have been obliterated by “Management”, misguided wanna-be’s, hired guns, and mostly by the influx of migrant / transient / imports from outside TVA. Cronies and tag-alongs have wreaked havoc within the agency, filled their retirement pockets and ensured that incompetence was and probably is rewarded with “golden parachutes”, all while trying to short change the employee’s retirement system by quietly, and probably illegally, diverting revenues. It is indeed a low day for TVA as is so well illustrated in the graph.
ReplyDeleteMike Ward, retiree
From the lack of comments, it would seem that no one cares. Sad
ReplyDeleteInternal Revenue Code 409A severely penalizes Executive non-qualified deferred retirement funds with BIG tax penalties if their companies' rank and file employees pensions are not at least 80% funded. That's the primary reason the companies other than TVA have contributed $Billions to their plans since 2008. The IRS does not seem to care about the TVA rank and file employees enough to penalize TVA Execs with 409A. Something is wrong, since 409A is applicable and mentioned in TVA's financial reports, but nothing about this penalty.
ReplyDelete