State retirement system official says divestiture from Sudan not simple

CARSON CITY -- The head of the Public Employees Retirement System said Thursday that it would not be a "simple decision" for her agency to pull back the $58 million it has invested in companies that do business with Sudan.

Executive Officer Dana Bilyeu said PERS reaped a $10 million return in the last two years on its investments with Schlumberger, a French company involved in oilfield development in the north-central African nation, which has been racked with ethnic and political violence. Schlumberger's stock prices are up 22 percent this year alone.

Bilyeu said PERS has about $58 million in investments with companies that do business in Sudan: $54 million with Schlumberger, $3 million with Rolls Royce, $1.1 million with Alstom and $214,000 with Lundin Petroleum. That is about one-quarter of 1 percent of the more than $19.6 billion the retirement system had in total investments at the end of the fiscal year.

She made the comments after a speech to the Legislature by Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., in which he touched on his opposition to investments that benefit the Sudan government.

Later in a news conference, Porter said PERS "should be divesting. Businesses should divest also."

He said he has been working with the Sudan Divestment Task Force, which set up a booth in the Legislative Building to publicize its effort to induce state pension funds to divest from companies that benefit the government of Sudan.

Jill Warren, a spokeswoman for the organization, said two legislators have agreed to amend an existing bill to require PERS to end its Sudan investments. Six states have passed laws requiring their pension funds to end investments in companies doing business with the Sudan government.

More than 2 million people died in Sudan in a 20-year civil war that ended in 2003. Another 400,000 have died since then in attacks by the government in the Darfur region.

Porter said he does not believe the U.S. military should intervene in Darfur, but he said the United States "needs to increase its presence there."

"Everyone needs to find a way to make a difference there," he added.

But Bilyeu said there is no single list that shows pension funds the names of companies whose investments end up hurting people in Sudan.

"The problem is there are competing divestment lists," said Bilyeu, adding that PERS met with Warren.

Bilyeu said the federal government should identify companies whose presence contributes to the problems in Darfur. "If the federal government acted and told us what to do, we would do it," she said.

Bilyeu said the government did make a list of companies with suspected ties to terrorist groups, and PERS made sure it did not invest in those firms.