Probe sought in alleged illegal firing, hiring of govt employees

The NMI Retirement Fund board has directed its administrator, Richard Villagomez, and its legal counsels to seek the help of the Office of the Attorney General in looking into suspected illegal terminations and rehiring of government employees following disclosure that there are indications that this exists in some autonomous departments.

Fund legal counsel Carolyn Kern disclosed to the board at its recent meeting that the Fund has “a number of reasons to believe” that some autonomous agencies are coercing their employees to resign, then manufacturing false documents to effect an immediate rehiring at exactly the same salary, sometimes on the very next day.

Kern pointed out that by taking employees out of the defined benefit plan and then putting them under the defined contribution plan after being rehired will result in big savings for these autonomous agencies. She explained that under the DB plan, the employer must put in 51 percent contribution, compared to only 4 percent if employees are in the DC plan.

The names of specific autonomous agencies were not disclosed at the meeting.

Kern said that agencies that terminate employees cannot re-hire them in a matter of a few days or weeks and must advertise the vacant positions to justify the need for them to be filled.

Under the law, a government employee who resigns cannot return to government service within six months.

Kern said that some employees might be happy with what is being done but others may not be so happy and have no other recourse but to do what their employers want.

Fund officials said their “initial findings” are based on the record of members who are coming in and going out of both the DB and DC plans.

After hearing these revelations, board chair Sixto Igisomar directed Villagomez and the Fund attorneys to formalize their findings and officially present them to the OAG for legal action.

If the findings are proven true, this would also mean violations against the governor’s directive that bars rehiring of resigned government employees, according to Igisomar.

In his directive No. 281, Gov. Benigno R. Fitial said that “effective immediately, because of funding constraints, these shall be no rehiring of former government employees who have already resigned from government service. Please ensure that all employees who are contemplating resignation are properly informed of this directive.”