Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 15, 1990 TAG: 9005150652
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: MARGIE FISHER RICHMOND BUREAU
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
In formalizing the sweeping divestment policy he introduced last Saturday, Wilder defended it on moral grounds and tried to hush criticism that he may have put political gain from the policy ahead of possible financial losses for the state agencies, including the mammoth state retirement system.
Wilder acknowledged that he does not know all of the financial ramifications of his action. But he said he accepts the word of a key financial adviser, S. Buford Scott, that the state will not suffer a financial loss.
Scott, a member of the Virginia Supplementary Retirement System board and the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia, where the divestiture issue recently came to the forefront, assured Wilder "that there will be no bath taken" by the state. "I hang on those lips," Wilder said.
The governor also said his action on South Africa investments should not be compared with his continuing silence on Virginia Military Institute's all-male admissions policy.
The VMI issue is in the federal courts, Wilder said, and his personal view is "of no moment." The U.S. Justice Department is suing VMI on grounds that its admissions policy discriminates against women.
With the executive order Wilder signed today, Virginia becomes the 27th state to adopt some type of divestment program to protest South Africa's forced racial separation policy.
"The Democracy that is enjoyed by the citizens of the United States, to large extent, was fathered and nurtured by patriot citizens of this commonwealth to blossom and grow across our great nation," Wilder said in signing the order. "If we are to recognize and honor our heritage, we, through our own concrete actions, must participate in the extension to all people these freedoms and liberties that we hold dear."
Wilder ordered that the policy "be carried out with full adherence to fiduciary principles and fiscal responsibility," adding that he hopes state agencies will complete divesture by the end of his term in January 1994.
Wilder smiled away suggestions that his policy for Virginia may mean a loss similar to one in New Jersey. That state had three years to sell off $4.2 billion in South Africa-linked investments, and estimated its total losses - including brokerage fees - ranged from $330 million to $515 million.
"I would hope you would not make a comparable between New Jersey and Virginia in anything," Wilder said.
In saying that the order would apply only to "substantive" interests, Wilder said administration officials still must work out hard guidelines. "It is very difficult to determine at this point what substantive is," he said.
He also said he had not reached the stage of determining whether his administration would discourage economic development in Virginia by companies that have substantive South African ties.
Wilder acknowledged that he had announced his broad-based policy during a commencement speech in Norfolk Saturday before he sat down with administration officials and financial advisers to figure out how the policy would be carried out.
"If I hadn't have done that, we'd be six months further along the road" without an anti-apartheid policy, Wilder said. "I think the time for action is now and we can develop the policy ."
by CNB