UNDT/2014/048, Boutroue
The Tribunal found that it is not competent to examine decisions taken by the UNJSPF. The application was dismissed.
The Applicant, a retired staff member, appealed the amount of pension communicated to him by the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund (UNJSPF), which was considerably lower than his entitlements contained in an unaudited estimate sent to him in 2012 by the UNJSPF.
Competence: Under its Statute, the Tribunal is not competent to examine decisions emanating from the UNJSPF, since such decisions are not taken by the Secretary-General who has no role in the Fund’s administration and since the UNJSPF is not one of the entities with which a special agreement has been concluded, under the terms of art. 2.5 of the Tribunal’s Statute. Summary judgment: The question of whether the Tribunal has jurisdiction over a case is a matter of law that can be decided even if it has not been raised by the parties and without the application being served to the Respondent. It has been accepted in the UN internal justice system that summary judgment is an appropriate tool to deal with issues of receivability.