Possible double-dippers at CHC

The NMI Retirement Fund has discovered that several employees of the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. may “potentially be double-dipping” and administrator Richard Villagomez said the Fund is already investigating the matter.

Villagomez said in Tuesday’s board meeting that the Fund has already written a letter to the corporation asking it to provide information about these employees.

Except for one employee who has been re-employed at the Saipan Mayor’s Office, the rest of the possible double-dippers work at the corporation, said Villagomez.

Double-dipping happens when a retiree returns to government service and draws both a salary and a pension.

“There’s information that we need to verify first so we request from any agency the information that we need, including payroll records,” said Villagomez.

He noted that the Fund allows only a few positions or appointments for retirees who want to be re-employed.

Villagomez also pointed out that the employee in question is given due notice and “some time” to comply with the request. “Eventually, we do stop the pension if we don’t receive the information.”

When board vice chair Adelina Roberto asked about the time frame given to these affected retirees, legal counsel Christopher Timmons reminded the board that this particular case is “still early in the process” and the Fund is “still gathering the information so an adverse decision hasn’t been made yet.”

“We have to go through the process and gather the information and not just jump to conclusion,” added Timmons.

According to Timmons, the Fund has 12 factors that define a statutory employee and the employees in question will have to be evaluated against those factors and enough information must be gathered to prove that they are actually employees before taking any action.

“There have been, in the past, decisions that were made without going through that process and the Fund lost on the appeal because of that so we have to be very careful to gather all the information to prove it up so that Mr. Villagomez’s decision will stand,” warned Timmons.

It was also noted during the board meeting that the allowable time for double-dipping “depends” and can be permitted up to two years as stipulated by law.

“All these people are high-salaried people,” lamented Roberto, to which Villagomez said, “As soon as we learned about this, we contacted them right away.”

The administrator also said that the corporation should have gone through a process that “obviously didn’t happen.”

“I think we need to end this thing right now because it’s a loss for the Fund. Even one month is too long, with the financial condition we’re in,” Roberto emphasized.

Although Timmons said the action will be against the employee who has been verified as a double-dipper, Villagomez argued that the employer is also “equally responsible.”

Timmons disclosed that they’ve already filed an Open Government Act request with the corporation, which has 10 days to respond.

According to Timmons, suspending the questioned employee’s pension “would violate their due process” and doing so will leave the Fund “without recouping the money.”

Timmons said many of these retirees try “to skirt” the process by entering into “independent contracts” with government agencies.

“Then we have to prove the factors that they are, in fact, an employee,” he said.

Villagomez added, “It’s a constant battle.”

Officials at the corporation did not respond to Saipan Tribune’s inquiries about the matter.