Saving the NMI govt and the Fund

Do contributors to the Retirement Fund deserve their earned returns? Wholeheartedly.

Are they being victimized unfairly? Without knowing, clearly, both sides of the issue.

Can the CNMI Retirement Fund play a crucial role in this time of need? They could but haven’t as yet.

Is the culprit of all this consternation the DBPR Reform Act of 2006 and Governor Fitial? No, on both counts.

The real challenge is, how do we get the monies to those deserving retirees and solve the government’s dilemma. Can it be done? Certainly.

Lest we forget, let’s take a very hard look at the real issue: Our government is rupturing. The CNMI is on the brink of bankruptcy and only a few believe it while others refuse to. We are faced with job losses, increased utility rates, default on federal assistance and gloomier days ahead.

Now the cause:

Rapacious stewardship by past governors and lawmakers. Instead of planning for tomorrow, they in rapt collusion with their messmates during the hog-heaven days of the Japanese “bubble economy” and Asia-investors-gone-wild circa 1986 through 1992 fattened the Retirement Fund in glorious anticipation when they, too, would retire. So they could carve out a chunk of pork for themselves. And buy their very own fishing boat and trailer to park at the Dock, along with other politico cohorts enjoying the same nest egg retirement they created in the first place.

The effect: Scrambling by the many deserving and emotionally charged retirees to rescue their monies invested in a Fund run by administrators who know not how to effectively leverage that $500 million in assets languishing somewhere.

And the consequence: Monies promised, not forgotten but decidedly untapped.

I wrote a letter to the editor on May 16 in which I stated that the administrators of the Fund, after accumulating an incredible amount of monies from the majority of hardworking contributors, have lost sight of its true purpose: to eventually give back to our community as a whole. Like now. Not to continually generate returns “forever and ever”, making themselves look good at the expense of the community. Granted, they have invested admirably. What they haven’t done is to support the CNMI with those same monies in this critical period of need.

I also requested of gurus-Reyes to seek answers of the legal ramifications and limitations of the Reform Act of 2006, to research the parameters of where the Fund’s obligations actually starts and stops, and to then write another swift letter to the editor that they were correct or incorrect in repudiating the governor’s proposal. A true and accurate position paper by the Fund for the benefit of the retirees and readers like us would foster a better understanding by all and relieve the tensions now experienced.

They chose not to inform us. They elected to fan the fires of discontent instead.

In direct contravention of the bailout assistance sought by the administration to help alleviate the multiple problems the CNMI immediately faces, the Retirement Fund board threw more fuel on the emotional fire of present and future retirees by declaring why they adamantly reject the Act. And now they’ve gotten the Retirees Association to concur with them. We’re at an impasse. So: Should the Fund file for bankruptcy?

Perhaps this is a blessing in disguise: We’ll get outside administrators who are not local bureaucrats by reference, unbiased administrators who are both competent and experienced to get the job done effectively, and expert administrators who will leverage that $500 million to help support the Reform Act of 2006.

I would fail miserably in attempting to balance my own checkbook but I do know this. I have rubbed shoulders with extremely high-powered financiers and Powerball money wizards who can resolve our community’s threat. They are out there. These are the type of administrators we desperately need. To our benefit, they will manipulate that same $500 million sitting in our coffers like so much pretty confetti, precisely in similar manner, now making fat commissions for those other guys.

And not us.

In conclusion: The $500 million in Fund assets can be utilized without jeopardizing the retirees. Governor Fitial has a broad-reaching and integrated but very complex plan for the benefit of all. He will get the monies due the retirees and solve our government’s money-crunch.

With a little more time and support.

Holani Smith
via e-mail